Tales Of The Fearless Dragon
by streetlife34
Summary: Delinquent, Brother, Protector of the weak, Undefeated fighter, Kind, Ruthless. Add Devil to that list. There all kind's of strange beings in this new this world, but that doesn't matter, no matter who gets in my way I will be victorious. I'm the current Red Dragon Emperor, Shirou Tsukiharu and I never lose.
1. Reborn

**Tales Of The Fearless Dragon.**

 **Hey, everyone and welcome, I've decided to write my first Highschool DxD fanfiction. Some of you may have read to the story written by Shirou Fujimura, well I really enjoy his work so I decide to make a character-based of his, although you'll notice my Shirou is different in certain ways. And by different, I mean stronger, and his personality and history will as be different. Truth is I've wanted to do this for a while now. And in case your wondering, yes I asked permission first. And honestly, there are so many different versions of Shirou already, so what's one more. Hope you all enjoy the ride.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Reborn.**

* * *

 _I remember it..._

 _Blood spilling from my wounds..._

 _I remember that strange figure standing before me..._

 _She appeared after my fight..._

 _Her hair, red like the colour of blood, eyes as blue as the morning sky, and a peculiar smile on her face..._

 _But all I could think about was living..._

 _No matter what, I had to live..._

 _"You truly are strong to still be standing even now." She said. "If you desire to live, then I'll save you and in exchange, you will live for my sake."_

* * *

 _Earlier that same day._

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

CLICK.

The young man let out a groan of irritation before pressing the snooze button, sitting up he shook off the drowsiness in his eyes.

The young man in question was seventeen years of age, Possessing bright-Sliver hair that went down to his neck and eyes that were a deep shade of blue. He was in great shape for his age. He continuously trained his body whenever he could. It was almost to the point where some would say he was obsessive about it. But to him it was worth it, his body was built strong though not bulky like a bodybuilder, it was lean and yet very well defined, there wasn't a single visible sign of fat anywhere on him. Though it was difficult to see since both his arms, shoulders and his entire torso were covered in a thin sheet of bandages. This young man was Shirou Tsukiharu.

As he moved to get out of bed, he went to his window and opened the curtains to let in the sunlight. Satisfied he left his room to start his day.

* * *

When he stepped out of the bathroom after having a shower, he first replaced his bandages with new ones and then got dressed. He wore his student uniform, that of the prestigious institution known as Kuoh Academy which consists of a black blazer with white accents, open to reveal a white long-sleeved button-down T-shirt with vertical linings, and matching black pants, also black sports shoes with a red stripe, and his own personal choose, a pair of black fingerless gloves with metal braces on the knuckles.

After being done with that he went downstairs to continued his morning by taking part in one of the activates that he actually enjoyed.

Cooking.

Shirou stepped in the kitchen and after a few minutes, two breakfast plates were sitting on the dining room table.

He waited patiently for several minutes, realizing all was not right. "Weird... she normally rushes downstairs the moment she catches a whiff of breakfast." He waited another few minutes before sighing. "What's taking her so long...?" He took a deep breath and decide that waiting any longer would be a waste of time. Shirou went back upstairs and walked to her room.

When he arrived he first knocked on the door. "Are you awake?" He didn't get a response and now feeling fed up, he just entered the room himself.

When he stepped into the room, he paused, immediately realizing that something was up.

The lights were off and dark curtains were drawn over the windows, the only illumination in the room was the brightness of the TV screen. The entire room was a mess, cushions, blankets, anime CDs, soundtracks, figurines, pillows, snack wrappers, food scraps, and stains created by substances Shirou didn't even want to hazard a guess as to what they could have been.

In the centre of the room was a wraith-like figure, their form completely shrouded by a thick, dark-blue comforter, showing only her pale-white skin, her eyes were the same colour as Shirou's expect they were bloodshot from what had likely been hours of uninterrupted anime viewing. Shirou sighed pulling the sheet off of her head, letting her lengthy black hair fall down to her shoulders, it was dirty and messy from horrible neglect. She was dressed in a green T-shirt that had black sleeves, and a bedazzled skirt that had probably sparkled at some point before it was covered in a mix of pizza sauce, dirt, chocolate, and what he hoped was water. Worn on her legs was a pair of black and white knee socks that were in a striped pattern.

She was so mesmerized by the TV, re-watching one of the newer Mahou Shojou serious, that she probably didn't even realize the sorry state she was in.

...He wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief, gently shaking her afterwards.

This girl was Mika Tsukiharu, Shirou's younger sister.

"Mika...Mikaaaaa…" He gently shook her again, trying to snap her out of her trance. However, she still showed no reaction. He knelt by her side and screamed at the top of his lungs in her ear, "MIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Surprisingly enough there was still no reaction from her. It was as if she hadn't even registered his existence the whole time he was there.

"Damn it." Shirou was now fed up with this, and just went over to the TV and turned it off. The light from the screen immediately went dark. He then turned back to face Mika. "Alright Mika, now that I have your attention, it's time for you to take a bath then come downstairs for break—"

Unfortunately for Shirou, he hadn't realized he had made a terrible mistake:

He took away anime from an otaku binge-watching an anime box set.

Mika turned to Shirou, her eyes glowing red with a vengeful fury as she pounced to him and grabbed him by the collar. She brought one hand around his neck and tired to choke him while using her other hand to scratch him over and over again in his face.

"AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!"

"GGGGGGGRRRRRR!"

She roared and growled at him all the while.

"Would you just—"

" _Hissss!_ "

"Did you just hiss at me?"

"GURAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

* * *

"To repeat what I asked a moment ago, what the fuck is wrong with you?!" Shirou screamed, a towel hanging over his head. "Who even DOES that?!"

"It was in the defence of all that is Otaku." Mika said quietly, letting out a soft, hum-like growl. "It was my right as an Otaku."

"It was your right as a crazy person!" Shirou snapped, his eyes widened. "Seriously! all because I turned off the TV?!"

"I was marking my territory, Big bro."

Shirou face-palmed. "This is the third time this month, and the last time you pissed on me."

Mika shrugged. "I dunno. It just felt like the right time."

"I had to burn that uniform!"

"What's the problem, you have more." Mika brushed off.

"That's not the point!" Shirou snapped again. "I need to buy air freshener because of how much this room stinks!"

Mika sniffed. "It doesn't smell that bad."

"You think that because it's your smell. I, on the other hand, say it smelled like piss BEFORE you urinated all over the place." Shirou pointed out, pinching his nose. "When was the last time you took a bath?"

"Last week."

"With soap?"

"That was about… Three months before last week." She narrowed her eyes at Shirou's look of disgust. "It's a sign of my pride as an Otaku that I've devoted my life to anime, manga, video games, soundtracks, figurines, poster cut-outs, and my eroge…! Especially my eroge. I have to time it just right so you're too deeply asleep to hear me late at night.

There was a moment of silence as that sunk in.

Nausea replaced Shirou's anger. "Oh Jesus, that's what those stains were…!" He covered his mouth, a shiver of disgust going down his spine. "You… Hugh… You're going to take a bath right now with soap before you get sick, and then you're going to eat breakfast. You need something nutritious or else you'll get fat. And I won't listen to any arguments.

Mika whined. "I don't want toooooooooo…"

"I don't care." Shirou then went over to the windows. "And open the curtains for once, you need more sunlight."

"Noooo! the sun is evillll." Mika then threw a blanket over herself, hiding from the sunlight that Shirou revealed from the pulled curtains. "Don't you have school?"

"Don't you?"

"I like being a NEET." Mika defended. "You don't."

She made a legitimate point. Before her Third year of Middle School, Mika unexpectedly and fell into the world of Otaku-dom becoming a complete NEET. The only time she ever stepped out of her room after that was either to eat, bathe, or go out to the nearest location to buy the newest volumes of her favourite manga or anime, sometimes for video games but her preferred method is to order from the internet. Shirou forced her to get her own credit card when she used his to buy a months worth of anime in one night. She supported her habits by applying for numerous contests with merchandise as the prize or charging to critique anime or video games by certain groups. If she did it full-time, Shirou would have an issue, but much like any junkie, she only worked long enough to support her habit for the next day or two and then coasting on that for several days.

While Shirou didn't necessarily like school, he sure as hell cared more about it than Mika who couldn't be bothered to get up in the morning for it.

Shirou facepalmed, shaking his head. "Whatever! This is more important." He declared, he got up and made his way out of the room. "Just eat breakfast downstairs and then take a bath WITH SOAP! While I'm out or so help me I will burn all of your manga."

Mika was horrified just from hearing his threat. "You wouldn't."

"Try me…"

Shirou had opened the door and was about to step out, but then Mika calls out to him.

"Wait!"

Shirou stops and looks back. "What?"

Mika then smiles and places her hands together to form a heart. "I love you."

Shirou was both surprised and confused on the suddenness of that, but he just decides to roll with it.

"…Okay."

He then stepped out the door and left to had to school.

He was already late.

* * *

Shirou sighed as he walked through the school gates.

He ended up arriving at the school building late, but it was at least in-between classes, so he wouldn't be interrupting anything.

Still, it would have been better if not for the fact that everyone was staring at him as if he was something they had never seen before and the crowd parted like the Red Sea the moment he came walking through. He may as well have been a feral beast hungrily eyeing a group of prey with the way they were all looking at him, some looked on with fear, others with intimidation, others curiosity, and some even had looks of admiration. A few of them even stumbled back and knocked over some of their classmates as they tried to put an unnecessarily large amount of distance between him and themselves. Shirou didn't particularly care since this was nothing new for him, and he just kept walking casually like everything was normal.

As he walked past the crowd, making his way to his class, he could hear them as they began whispering among themselves, "subtly" throwing awkward glances in his direction every second or so. Opinions about him varied between, while one side of the gossip said he was a kind heart soul who looks hard to approach but was actually caring and had sympathy for others. The other side of the gossip believed him to be a demon in human form, who was capable of unspeakable evil and cause trouble and chaos for his own enjoyment. His unique reputation of being either a Saint or a Demon was something everyone pondered on at least once, but no one knew which side was true.

None of the opinions matched up. What kind of person Shirou Tsukiharu was changed depending on who you asked in Kuoh town. You only need to open your ears as he walked by. It was for those reasons that people could literally believe ANYTHING about Shirou Tsukiharu no matter how far fetched.

And as for Shirou himself, well he never took the time to answer which side was true. For two reasons.

1\. He was pretty sure they wouldn't believe him, after having so many rumours start about him people don't care about the truth anymore, they just care about their version of the truth.

2\. He felt both sides were wrong. While he didn't consider himself a kind soul, he also didn't believe he was a demon. He just thought of himself as someone who simply lived as he pleased if others misunderstood his intention and came up with something ridiculous then that was their problem.

Anyway, after dealing with everyone's watching gazes, he made his way to class, though after sitting in his seat he just rested his head on his desk and closed his eyes. After having to deal with Mika first thing in the morning, he was still feeling a bit tired and thus slept through class. Once the bell rang and class was over everyone got up from their seats, except Shirou who just kept his head down, because of that he didn't notice someone walking up to him.

"Hey, you awake?"

Shirou recognized the voice and got up, he looked to see the person who spoke was standing in front of him.

It was one of the two people that Shirou didn't mind hanging out with regularly, Aika Kiryuu. Aika is a Second-Year student who is in the same class as Shirou. She wears spectacles, has hazel coloured eyes and lightly messy brunette hair tied into braids on each side. She was wearing the standard Kuoh Academy female uniform which consists of a white long-sleeved, button-down shirt with vertical linings, a black ribbon on the collar, a black shoulder cape and matching button-down corset, and a magenta skirt with white accents.

Aika is someone who has a very perverted personality and doesn't feel any need to hide it. Her lewdness is something that most people find disturbing but despite that, she still has a lot of friends. She and Shirou are known to be good friends, unlike others who mostly avoid Shirou, Aika talks to him without issue and when talking to him she acts as though he is like any other guy. Aika was someone who didn't care about labels or how her actions would be looked at by others and thus Shirou didn't mind having her around. The two of them even spent some time in a relationship, but one month ago they split up, even so, they still get along as well as before.

Shirou sat up to greet her. "Oh, hey Aika."

"What's up? You were late and you slept through class."

"Mika." That was all Shirou said.

"Ah, I see." Aika replied.

An example of how close they were was that simply saying that one word was all the explanation she needed to know what happened.

"Well, are you awake now?" Aika asked.

"A little, but I still feel like laying down somewhere." Shirou then stood up from his seat. "I'll be on the roof, mind covering for me?"

Aika smiled.

"Don't worry, I didn't hear a thing."

"Cool."

Shirou then walked out of the classroom and made his way through the hall. He then began to climb up the stairs and when he reached the top, he opened the door that leads him to the roof of the school building. Shirou went to the sidewall and seat down, he simply relaxed and enjoyed the quiet serenity around him. The stress of today just fading off into the wind. After a little, while the door to the roof opened, Shirou looked to see who it was.

"I had I feeling you'd be up here."

The person who spoke was the second of the two people that Shirou didn't mind hanging out with regularly, Ren Todo. Ren was a Second-Year student that was also in the same class as Shirou. He wears the same standard uniform as Shirou, except for him the blazer was closed. Ren had light brunette hair that was a brighter shade than Aika's that was straight and well brushed, and his eyes were a light shade of green. Ren had what you would call bishounen looks, Ren looks made him liked by many of the female students and hated by many of the male students. His appearance was apposed to Shirou's bad boy looks, and thus it would be easy to see them as opposites but, despite that, they were actually friends.

Their friendship started back when they first started at this academy. Even back then Shirou had a reputation that made him stand out, and because of that, no one could approach him. Ren saw him from a distance since they were in the same class, he was curious about what he was like but didn't know how to break the ice. After a while, he just decided to go for it, even though in the beginning it was just Ren who tried starting a conversation, and Shirou just ignored him thinking after a while he would just go away. But one day Shirou decide to talk as well, and to his surprise, they quickly hit it off. The two of them spent more time hanging out until they became what you could call friends.

"Ren, how'd you know I was here?"

Ren smiled and walked over to him.

"Well, I saw you weren't heading to next period's classroom, and I figured since you usually spend time up here, then this is where you would be."

Shirou shrugged. "Leave it to you to figure that out."

Ren then stopped in front of him and sat down next to him.

"Mind if I join?" Ren asked.

"Be my guest."

The two of them sat there, letting time go by without a care. Then Ren opened up his backpack and took out a small bottle of alcohol.

"Hey you want some?" Ren offered.

Shirou just reached out and took it. "Yeah, give it here."

Shirou opened the bottle and took a slip, he then passed it back to Ren who also took a slip.

"Hey, just a thought but, is it okay for us to drink his early in the day?" Ren asked.

Ren then passed the bottle back to Shirou and they passed it back and forth while they talked.

"I don't think you should be asking that since you brought it here." Shirou then took another slip. "And besides its just one bottle, not like were getting wasted."

"True, hey you mind if I ask you something?" Ren asked.

"Sure what." Shirou replied.

"We'd you and Aika break up?"

Shirou stopped drinking at that question and thought for a moment before answering. "Oh, well I guess it's because... Because honestly, even though we were dating our relationship didn't really feel different then from when we weren't."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it seemed like a good idea at first, but really we were just acting like we always did, and we didn't really do anything that we couldn't do before we were together." Shirou took another slip. "So we both agreed that the who thing was a hassle and just ended it, and that's about it."

Ren took the bottle and drank some more. "Huh, and here I was thinking it was because you got tired of all her sexually innuendos."

"Why would that happen, sure it's a bit weird, but it's just her thing, I don't have a problem with it."

"Not even the fact that she can check the size of a guys manhood with her glasses?" Ren asked.

Shirou just looked irritated. "Ren, for the last time, that wasn't real! There's no possible way for someone to do that, she just wants to get a reaction out of everyone."

"Really 'cause, you know about those two guys in our class that always spy on the girls' kendo club, I've heard that the one with glasses can check the sizes or a girl's measurements."

"Ren the fact that you believe any of this crap worries me." Shirou said annoyed. "Just because they say it doesn't mean it's true, I mean come on, you don't get X-ray vision just from wearing glasses."

"Well, what about that time she said "You've got a big one." was it not true."

There was now an awkward silence in the air and they both just stopped talking for a moment.

Shirou then turned to look at Ren. "I'm going to let that one slide and just let you blame it on the alcohol."

"Yeah... I don't even know why I asked that."

They decide to end the awkwardness by drinking more of the alcohol.

"Still though, she'll never know if it was true." Ren said. "Not unless you sleep with her."

"No, I did sleep with her." Shirou casually said.

There was now another awkward silence in the air as Ren turned to look at Shirou who was just casually drinking.

"What?"

"Yeah, it's true."

"But how, I mean when?" Ren asked.

"About, a few weeks after we started going out," Shirou remembered. "She was doing her usually innuendos, and I decide "Fine if that's what you want," and so we just did it, y'know, as they say, just get it over with."

"That's it, just like that?"

"Yep, and surprisingly enough, it felt really good, I mean it was my first time so I didn't have anything to compare it to, but I know what I like. We actually did it several times while we were together."

"Wow," Ren was surprised by all he had heard. "Is that why so only talks normal to you, I thought she just decide to drop the gag."

"Ren people don't drop their gags, they just drop who they use it on."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Heh, yeah right, who just casually brings up when they had sex with someone."

"True, that would just be weird."

Ren takes another sip from the bottle, but then he notices the bottle is now empty. "Hey Shirou, we're out of alcohol."

"What, let me see." Shirou takes the bottle and sees that it's indeed empty. "Well, that's over."

Shirou then stands up and begins to leave.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ren asked.

"Well I'm wide awake now, but I need to sober up." Shirou said heading for the door.

"You're not going to class?"

"Of course not, I can't go to class with alcohol in my breathe." Shirou pointed out. "Do me a favour and cover for me."

Ren sighed but smiled nonetheless. "Sure thing,"

Shirou nodded and walked out the door, he then made his way downstairs, out the school building, and finally left the school gate.

With that, Shirou had left the school grounds as quickly as he came.

* * *

Shirou was now walking down the sidewalk, trying to think of where he should go now.

Shirou was glad that he could spend time with Aika and Ren, he just wished everyone else wasn't so hung up on rumours that they couldn't get within a certain radius of him.

The rumours first started when he was in Middle School when he got into a fight with some bullies who were stealing lunch money from some of his classmates. The problem was he wasn't good at holding back his strength and didn't realize how weak they were compared to him. The result was they all gained serious injuries including cracked or broken bones. And while the ones he saved were grateful, the ones who watched were terrified. The rumours then began there with both sides telling different sides of the story. But things didn't end there, the ones he beat up got their older Brothers to come the next day, though he beat them up to. Then they brought their friends, and he beat them next. The cycle repeated along like a pattern. Shirou didn't really want to fight them, but he wouldn't back down from a challenge and while he didn't start fights he would always end them.

Shirou didn't just fight for himself though. Sometimes he saw a guy or a girl being picked on, and he beat up the abuser, or he found a certain someone and beat up that someone before taking what they had and returning it to its true owner. His actions made some look at him as a hero, but his methods made others see him as a brutal thug. Shirou didn't deny that he was a Delinquent but he hardly thought of himself as someone as bad as they describe. At the same time, he had no intention of calling himself a hero either, he just hated seeing people cause trouble for others and act like it was their right simply because they were stronger than their victims. Maybe there were other ways to deal with them besides fighting, but fighting was all he knew, he's been fighting his whole life and he saw no reason to stop doing something that hadn't failed to work.

"There you are Tsukiharu! I've been looking for ya."

Speaking of fighting.

Shirou turned around to see the person standing behind him, it was Takeru Saito. Saito was someone Shirou didn't hate but didn't like, at least not enough to call him a friend, he was more of an acquaintance. Saito was also a Second-Year student though he was indifferent class as Shirou. He wears the same standard uniform as Shirou expect for him the sleeves on the blazer were cut off making it more of a vest, and the top three buttons on his T-shirt were undone. Saito had dark purple hair with red highlights in his front bangs that was messy and spiky going down, and his eyes were black. Saito had the same bad boy look that Shirou had, both of Saito's hands were wrapped in bandages which showed he regularly used them for fighting.

Saito was someone who fought with Shirou almost every day. Before Shirou lived in Kuoh, Saito was the Strongest Delinquent in town, he'd get into fights with anyone who so much as looked at him funny, and regardless of who he was up against, he always came out on top. That changed when he met Shirou, Saito was curious about Shirou because of the rumours and so he challenged him, to his shocked Shirou thrashed him, and to make it worse Shirou didn't look like he'd even broken a sweat. And from that day Saito decided he wouldn't fight anyone else until he settled things with Shirou. That was months ago and they haven't stopped fighting since. Shirou himself didn't really care about being known as the Strongest Delinquent, but he still fought Saito because he considered it good training, Saito was someone he actually had to try to defeat, though not to the point where he ever thought he would lose. Saito was definitely stronger than he used to be, but Shirou grew stronger at a faster rate and had more fighting experience, thus he knew he would win. People would often say, "If it's one on one, Shirou will win," no matter who he went up against.

"Saito, I had a feeling it was that time of the day."

Shirou raised his fist to prepare for a fight, and Saito cracked his knuckles.

"Hope you're ready Tsukiharu, this time it's over for you."

"That's what they all say."

Saito then rushed forward and started the fight with a straight punch aimed at Shirou's face. Shirou easily saw it coming and grabbed his forearm, Saito tried punching him with his other arm, but Shirou was faster and punched him on his right cheek, the impact of the hit sent him back a few steps. Saito felt some blood of his drip from his lips but he ignored it. This time Shirou rushed him and let loose a barrage of punches, Saito knowing he couldn't dodge let loose his own barrage of punches, their fists clashed at high speed, but Saito could feel he was taking more damage than Shirou. Hoping to catch him off guard Saito raises his leg and tries to hit Shirou with a high-kick. Unfortunately, Shirou had the same idea and raised his leg to block Saito's kick, Shirou then saw that Saito's guard is down due to being surprised that his attack was blocked, taking advantage of this opening, Shirou jumps up and uses his other leg to deliver a strong to Saito in the stomach.

That kick knocked some of the wind out of him and Shirou moved in to continue his assault. Shirou rains down a rapid amount of hard punches to Saito's stomach and chest which not only pushes him back but doesn't give him a chance to defend or counterattack. Shirou ends his assault with a final punch aimed at Saito's face. That punch knocks him back and into a wall that was behind him. Planning to end the fight Shirou delivers his final punch to Saito's stomach, with so much force it cracks some of the concrete wall behind him. Having taken so much damage Saito falls, unable to stand up.

Shirou knowing the fight was over approached Saito.

"That makes this win #157, well I'm all sobered up so I can't complain."

Saito looked up, facing Shirou with narrowed eyes and a smirk on his face, breathing heavily.

"…Damn it Tsukiharu… you are hard to put down… _cough_ , are you sure… you're not really a demon…"

"If you want to believe that then go ahead." Shirou then turned around to leave. "Still I gotta say, I thought beating down the same person every day would get boring after a while, but here you are still making it interesting for me. I mean you'll never beat me mind you, but at least you make it fun."

Shirou began walking away, as Saito watched him leave, he looked up at the sky and thought about what Shirou said amused.

 _"I'll never beat you, you say…? Heh, who cares about that."_

* * *

Shirou was now walking through town, feeling better about today.

"Well now I'm awake and I'm sober, so what to do now?"

As Shirou pondered on what to do, he found his answer as he saw a group of rough-looking guys walking into a dark alley with a terrified looking girl. Feeling that the situation could only get worse Shirou decided to follow them.

"Huh, two fights in one day, that's hasn't happened in a while."

As Shirou made his way into the alley, the others quickly noticed him.

"Well, well, if it isn't the Sliver Yaksha himself, Tsukiharu."

There were about a dozen rough-looking guys there, and the girl was a little bit shorter than Shirou, had long black hair, and was wearing an unfamiliar, red student uniform.

"Sliver Yaksha?" Shirou asked. "Before it was the "Demon of Kuoh," then the "Strongest Brawler," and after that, it was the "Dark Prince." Now this, seriously who comes up with these names?"

Shirou then walked up to the girl and stood in front of her.

Shirou was now immediately serious. "Listen 'cause I'm only asking this once. What do you bastards think you're doing?"

"We were just about to have some fun with our new lady friend, but then you showed up." The shady character in front punched his open left hand, grinning while the rest started taking out weapons. "Now that you're here though, we can dish out some payback from last time."

"Either you hit your head last time and don't remember, or you still don't get how weak you losers are yet." Shirou said watching all his enemies, waiting for them to make a move. "But don't worry, I don't mind showing you again."

"What'd you say, punk?" One of the thugs, some bald-headed youth in an orange hoodie asked, getting ready to fight.

"I said you guys are all weak, small fry." Shirou said without any fear, and also a smirk on his face, knowing his plan to get in their heads was working. "And I can beat each of you…, with just one blow."

"That does it!" The orange hoodie was the first one to throw a punch.

Shirou simply tilted his head the right and the punch harmlessly passed by. "Same as always, so easy to read." Shirou formed a fist with his hand to throw a backhanded punch at the orange hoodie. The strength behind the punch was so great, it knocked him off the ground and into a wall after he hit the wall he had lost consciousness. Shirou still looked bored, while the rest of the thugs looked pissed at him. "Next."

At Shirou's call, several more of them rushed him with no plan or sense of coordination.

"Asshole!"

"You're so fucking dead!"

"Kick his ass!"

"Stomp him into the ground!"

Shirou just stood there waiting for them to come to him. "Well, the back of my hand is warmed up, so I'll finish this quick." He sidestepped, ducked, dodged, and weaved through several crowbars, baseball bats, and flailing limbs, readying their moves all the while. "Okay, that's enough of that." He then jumped up and did a mid-air split, kicking two of them in the face thus taking them out of the fight. The moment he landed, he blitzed towards two others and spread out his arms, hitting them both with a lariat, knocking them out too. Without missing a beat, he moved on to the next three and before they could react, he hit one with a strong left hook, the second with a right cross, and the third with a powerful uppercut and in an instant, they were all down. One more thug tried attacking him from behind and was running up to him, but Shirou heard him coming and simply raised his fist, causing it to collide with his attacker's face and thus knocking him down. There was now only three enemies left.

"Well, that was mildly annoying." He faced the remaining three, who were now feeling fearful. "I forgot to mention this, I'm used to fighting large groups so if you attack me at the same time, it'll work to my advantage."

[NOW YOU TELL US!?] The remaining three yelled in unison.

Apparently one of them still felt like trying his luck and the next thing he knew, he tried to hit Shirou upside the head with a 42-inch long piece of iron. But Shirou just waited for it to get into reaching distance and then reached out to grab it. The grunt tried pulling it free from Shirou's grip but Shirou was too strong. He then pulled the iron pole closer with great strength and the grunt still holding it was pulled in as well, Shirou used that momentum to his advantage and landed a punch upside his head, and so he was out to.

"You guys don't seem to get it, titles and names I get from others are meaningless to me, but the one thing that's true is this, no matter how many of you try to gang up on me, I won't lose." Shirou started walking towards the remaining two. They thought about running but were now too afraid to even attempt it, all they could do was stand there stiff. "Because your just a pack of losers, and I am Shirou-sama!"

With that, he grabbed both of them by their necks. "I said I'd beat you with one blow, and I'm a man of my word." And thus he slammed their heads into each other, and with that, the last of his opponents were down. The fight had ended.

"And that's the end of that, could hardly call it a fight though." Shirou turned his head, looking at the frightened girl on the ground. "You alright there?"

The girl nodded timidly, but Shirou couldn't help but feel something was... "off" about her somehow.

"Is… Is it over?"

"Since I doubt they'll be getting up anytime soon, I believe so." Shirou confirmed. He held out his hand and helped her on her feet. "You should be more careful next time, after all it's not safe walking down this alley on your own, really if I wasn't here then—" That was when the girl immediately embraced Shirou, wrapping her arms around his torso. "…Why am I being hugged?"

"Thank you so much, Tsukiharu-kun!"

Shirou knew she was being grateful, but he still felt annoyed by her sudden embrace and he still didn't feel right about her. "Whatever…" Things got stranger for him when this strange girl suddenly beamed at him with admiring eyes. "As I was saying, if I wasn't here, you would've been a goner. Don't let this happen again."

"You're my hero."

"Oh please." Shirou scoffed. "You seriously don't know we very well, that's why you think that. I only saved you because I can't stand guys like them and by the way let go of me."

"Wait!" The girl wrapped her arms about him tighter. "Please, before you go, can you walk home with me?"

"And why would I do that?" She embraced him tighter, causing her breasts to press up against him, though that only succeeded in annoying him further.

"Please! I don't know if I can on my own." The girl begged.

"Tch… Fine, fine already!" Shirou groaned accepting her request. "Just hurry up and for the love of God, let go of me!" Shirou broke out of the girls grasp and started walking out of the alley while she followed.

* * *

Shirou was not happy right now, and to make it worse he realized he had no explanation for why he would return home so early.

The day was going well before and now it was bothersome again.

He couldn't figure out how to shake Yuuma off of him.

The girl he had rescued, Yuuma Amono, wouldn't leave him alone. In the end, he had no choice but to walk her home, all in all, it wasn't how he wanted to spend his time.

"So your house is this way right?" Shirou asked with a groan as he dealt with the annoying looks he received from people as they passed by. They likely misunderstood the situation as Yuuma being his girlfriend. Yuuma hardly helped the situation by grabbing his hand every now and then only for him to quickly free himself, shooting Yuuma a bemused look. The girl seemed to always put on a frustrated look of her own only to quickly change her expression back to her previous pleasantness. Shirou could never picture himself having a girlfriend like Yuuma in the first place, honestly before Aika, he'd never had close interactions or so much as kissed anyone. Although there was that one childhood friend… He shook his head. _"Nah, guys don't count."_ They were now walking through the park. "What are you doing this far away from home anyway? I don't believe you attend my school."

Yuuma's eyes were now completely shrouded by her hair. "W-Well I—" Yuuma then stopped walking and Shirou wondered what was up with her strange change in her mood. "Tsukiharu-kun, can I ask you something?"

Shirou wasn't sure where she was going with this, but decide to hear her out. "I'll probably regret this, but sure what is it?"

Yuuma then leaned in closer and rested her head on his shoulder, she then whispered in his ear with a sickeningly voice that made Shirou's body tense. "…Would you please die for me?"

Shirou quickly moved on instinct and jumped but, an action that saved him since in Yuuma's hands was some kind of bright light in the form of a blade, that she had just tried to stab him through the chest with. "Yeahhhh, I'm gonna have to say no to that."

Suddenly the world around them changed colour, there was now a dark purple aura that was blanketing the scenery around them, and the sky was now a kaleidoscope of dark purple, light purple, dark blue, and black. However, Shirou didn't have time to ponder on that as he kept his focus on the strange girl in front of him. Yuuma's kind and gentle face from before was now completely gone. Instead, it was replaced by a smile filled with sadism and malice.

Then giant, black wings sprouted from her back. Large, black, feathery wings. Her clothes seemed to vanish and she grew a bit taller, taking on a more mature appearance, and her eyes changed, taking on a darker, more evil look.

Her clothing also changed dramatically, now consisting of black, strap-like objects (resembling leather) around and under her breasts, a thong-like piece held around her hips by three thin straps, gloves that ran right up her arms with small lengths of chains hanging from them, shoulder guard-like objects on her shoulders with three large spikes sprouting from her right shoulder, and black thigh-high heel boots.

"Heh, I'm legitimately surprised you dodged that." "Yuuma" taunted in a darker, more mature voice. "Tell me, did you have your guard up the whole time?"

"Yeah, from the moment I first saw you, my instincts told me something was off about you." Shirou glared daggers at her. "Who the hell are you?!"

"I have no reason to tell you that." Yuuma then conjured up another weapon made of light. "I'm sure you're wondering why I've come to kill you."

"Not really."

"It's because… Wait what did you just say?" She asked confused.

Shirou had a blank look on his face. "I don't really care about why just who."

"Yuuma" couldn't believe what she was hearing. All the tension built up a moment ago had vanished.

"Wait, you're telling me that someone appears out of nowhere with the intent to kill you, and you don't even care why?!"

"Look, I've had people want me dead for whatever reason longer than you'd think possible." Shirou said not really feeling bothered by that fact "If I took the time to hear the reason all the time, I'd never get anything done."

"Yuuma" now looked frustrated. "You idiot! My reason is nothing like those, it's of much greater importance than whatever moron you've dealt with in the past!"

"You say that but I think it's more like, you spent the whole day prepared to say it, and you're upset that I'm not interested." Shirou said in a condescending tone.

She would never admit it but he was partly right, and thus she tried to salvage this situation and say it anyway.

"My reason you ask?" "Yuuma" asked rhetorically, clearly annoyed by Shirou lack of interest. "Well then, I'll explain."

"Oh, so you're doing anyway?" Shirou interrupted still bored. "Guess I was right then."

"I'm here under orders from my superiors." "Yuuma" continued on, pretending not to hear Shirou's interruption. "They deemed that your Sacred Gear could be a threat to us, and kept you under surveillance, now its fallen onto me to eliminate you before you grow into a threat in the future."

"So what you're saying is, you were ordered by someone whom I've seen or heard of, to watch me from afar, because they felt threatened by something I supposedly have that I myself have no idea about, and now you're going to kill me because you assume it's what they want, but haven't actually confirmed it." Shirou commented. "You're right, that reason isn't like the others. It's much stupider."

"What do you know!" "Yuuma" was now angry at Shirou's condescending attitude. "This mission was of the utmost importance, that's why I was sent."

"Really? I thought it was because they were short on staff."

"Yuuma" was now foaming, but did her best to hold it in.

"My plan to lure you here was flawless." "Yuuma" explained while trying to control her temper. "I was going to make you fall desperately in love with me through some "heartfelt confession" on a bridge at sunset, ask you out on a date, and then kill you the very next setting sun."

"That doesn't sound flawless at all, it sounds more like you needlessly making something long and complicated out a simple "Get from point A to point B". Really it's not that hard."

"Shut up! It was clever!" "Yuuma" snapped.

"Noooot really, first of all, I'd never fall in love with some random girl I just met one day just because she asked me out, hell I probably would have just rejected the date altogether. Secondly, if you really wanted to just kill me, wouldn't it have been more effective to just approach me when I wasn't looking, stab me in the throat and end it there?"

"…"

"Yuuma" just stood there silent processing all she had just heard, and couldn't believe three things.

1\. Her entire plan was now sounding both unnecessary and flawed.

2\. This whole time nothing he had pointed out hadn't even crossed her mind until he said it.

3\. The very fact that the person she was supposed to kill was lecturing her on how she should have killed him.

"Though not like it matters now." Shirou continued. "Since we already meet, because of those thugs in the alley."

She broke out of her thoughts and re-entered the conversation.

"That's right, my whole plan was thrown out the window because of them. You weren't supposed to meet me in that alleyway. I better make sure to hunt down and kill those worthless thugs after this. Still, I was lucky it lured you in, just couldn't resist playing the hero could you?" She mocked.

"Hey, I wanted to save you from being gang banged, although I should have just left you, I mean look at how you're dressed, you're practically asking to be gang banged."

That was the last straw for "Yuuma," after that her rage broke loose.

"THAT'S IT! FUCK THIS AND FUCK YOU!"

In her rage, she hurled her light weapon at him. But since he could see it coming, he waved to his right and dodge. _"Okay, she's actually strong, didn't see that coming."_ He thought as he dodged. "Yuuma" wasn't finished, she kept conjuring up more spears and throwing them at him and Shirou kept dodging them. He didn't know how much damage those things would cause, but he wasn't foolish enough to find out while fighting for his life. While dodging he thought about this situation.

 _"Okay, I'm fighting something I've never seen before, that uses powers I don't know about, who wants to kill me because I have something I couldn't begin to understand, told to her by people I don't know…, Wow this has never happened before. But I can deal with is, my first priority is beating her, I'll figure the rest out later, which means I need to get in close and land some hits."_

Fortunately, Shirou had experience with being in fights where he had to attack his opponent while taking great care to dodge their weapons. There were a few times where he fought enemies who used poison knives, this might be a bit different, but the fundamental idea was the same.

"Here I come!"

Shirou then changed his movements, he was waving and dodging side to side while rushing forward towards "Yuuma" who continued throwing spears at him. As he got closer, it was getting harder to dodge her attacks, some of the spears of light started the graze him, thus leaving small cuts around his body. But fortunately, he dodged long enough to get into her striking zone.

Now that he was in close range, "Yuuma" stopped throwing her spears, and instead used the one in her hand to try and slash him. She swung her spear at Shirou's right, but Shirou crouched down to avoid it and swiftly followed by sliding past her side and getting behind her. "Yuuma" tried turning around to continue her attack, but as she turned her head to face him, Shirou used his full strength to hit her face with a heavy punch. The punch caught her by surprise and so the spear in her hand vanished, the punch would have knocked her away from him, but Shirou took this chance and grabbed the arm the was holding the spear, not missing a beat, Shirou used his free arm to deliver another punch on her forearm while holding it in place.

SSCCLICK!

"AAAAGGHHH!"

The result of the offence was "Yuuma's" left arm was now completely broken, her arm was bent side-ways and bruised all over her forearm in a dark black colour, and was bent in a way that looked as painful as it sounded. Shirou split the bone in her forearm just as he intended. As for "Yuuma", she fell to her knees and held on to her ruined arm, while screaming in pain. Shirou then stood there and reviewed his work.

"Huh, guess even if you can do those weird light attacks, you're more or less psychically the same as a human, good to know."

"You… YOU BASTARD!"

"Yuuma" roared in both pain and rage, never once believing Shirou could wound her like this. She then used her wings to fly up in the air and hovered above him. Though upset, she knew she was inferior to him in strength and so she decided to now continue the fight from the sky and simply kill him from a safe distance. This time she summons a spear much larger than any previous ones. She uses her right arm, being unable to move her left arm without feeling intense pain.

"Just try and dodge this!"

Filled with murderous intent, she unleashed the spear. Shirou ran to dodge it, but as it hit the ground, it built up into a large and powerful explosion. Even though Shirou could dodge the spear, he couldn't out-run the explosion that came after, and thus was hit by a fair amount of damage. The explosion knocked him off his feet, and flung him through the air, he then landed on the ground on his back.

"Aah, I really felt that one."

"Yuuma" grinned sadistically, glad that her attack succeeded. "Hahahahah, too bad, you couldn't dodge it." She then conjures up another one. "Here, why don't you try again!" She once again hurled the large spear at Shirou. Shirou realizing that taking a direct hit from one of those things would be trouble quickly got up and tried to escape the blast radius.

This started a pattern, "Yuuma" throws her spear, Shirou dodges the spear, the after explosion hits him with damage. After following this pattern two or three more times, Shirou could feel his injuries piling up and knew he wouldn't last much longer at this rate. At the same time, "Yuuma" could feel herself running low on magic. Both of them realized they had to end this soon.

 _"Okay, I can't reach her from up there, so I gotta make her come to me."_ Shirou thought of a plan to finish this battle. _"This better work or I'm dead."_

Shirou then stopped and spread both his arms out. "Hey Yuuma! come and get me!"

"Yuuma" was confused by this action, she wondered if this was part of some plan he had, but quickly dismissed that thought. At this point, she didn't have enough magic power to create any more of her larger spears of light, and thus couldn't attack him in a way that he couldn't dodge. That and her added fatigue weighing on her mind made her desperate to end this fight as soon as she can.

"So you've finally decided to give up huh?" "Yuuma" summoned an ordinary spear of light and charged at Shirou with the intent to kill him. "IT'S OVER!"

She then closed in and stabbed her spear into his stomach, the spear pierced Shirou stomach and ran through his body. Blood split out of his mouth and his stomach which was stabbed, he also had bleeding wounds around his body including his shoulder, his arms, and his left ankle, though they were much more shallow. "Yuuma" marvelled at her work and felt relief believing she had finally won, and because of that she relaxed her guard thinking that Shirou would soon be dead, she felt safe.

That however, was what Shirou was waiting for. "You're right, it is over."

Before she could react, Shirou clenched both his first and with as much speed as he could muster, he drew both his arms in and unleashed a punch on the arm "Yuuma" was using to hold the Spear of Light. This attack was different from the first one, this one attacked her at the same time from both sides, this caused the damage to be much worse.

SSSCCRRACKKK!

"UUUUGGGHHHHH!"

This time the result ended with the bones of her right forearm being broken into pieces. It was a gruesome sight, this time her arm was bent upwards and it wasn't just bruised, it was bleeding all over, and there was even some bone that was sticking out. The instant the pain registered, she immediately let go of the spear, causing it to fade, and was on the ground, wailing in pain. Both her arms were now ruined and usable. Shirou stood before her, listening to her pained screams, but felt no guilt or mercy.

After a few minutes of this, "Yuuma" tried to stand up and glared daggers at Shirou. "You… How dare yo—" She was interrupted as Shirou kicked her in the stomach the moment she stood upright. Shirou was intending to end this fight now. After the kick, Shirou brought both his hands together and hits her with a double axe handle to the head, inflicting major damaged and causing her to collapse. Though before she could hit the ground however, Shirou reached out and grabbed her by the neck, he then lifted her up and finished it by slamming her into the ground.

"Maybe I forget to mention something to you… I'm known for my brutality."

"Yuuma" Barely heard him, as she was laying on the ground, on her back, barely able to stay conscious. Everything hurt, she'd never felt pain like this in her life. She couldn't understand it, how could this happen. How could a human, one who knew nothing about the supernatural, one who hadn't even awakened his Sacred Gear, reduce her to such a pitiful state. It made no sense, she then looked up the see his face.

And that when she saw it.

Somehow, for some unknown reason, something had changed about him. As she looked at his glaring face, she saw something that both shocked and horrified her. Shirou's eyes were now glowing in a bright golden colour, completely different from his normal blue. But what changed wasn't just his eyes, there was now a dark, black aura wrapped around his body. "Yuuma" didn't know what these were or where they came from, but she felt an overwhelming terror entering her mind just from seeing them both. As Shirou raised his fist, preparing for one final strike, "Yuuma's" fear increased, she felt like prey caught by a predator, it was as if the boy standing above her, who was only a few inches taller than her, was now a giant towering over her. After seeing that, fear and adrenaline were coursing through her, and she quickly got up while ignoring her pain and flew, she flew away as fast as she could, not care which direction she went in, just wanting to escape that monster.

Shirou watched her leave, uncaring if she was escaping since he didn't have the energy to go after her, and more importantly she wasn't important enough to be concerned about through his eyes. Speaking of his eyes, now that she was gone both the glow in his eyes and the dark aura around him faded, he was back to normal but Shirou himself never even noticed the change. As she was out of sight, the darkness that covered the sky and the scenery was gone, and the world around him returned to the way it was.

"Damn it, I didn't learn a thing and I still have no idea on why any of this shit even happened."

Irritated by all of today's unexplained events, Shirou decides to just head home. However, as he took one step, a wave of pain flooded through him. All the damage from the fight especially the stab wound from the spear flowed through him and he was struggling to stay on his feet. All the excitement from the battle to the death was enough to keep he going before, but know he was seriously injured and need help.

 _"Damn it, my vision is fading."_ Shirou was using all his strength to stay on his feet. _"I can't fall asleep or I'll die. Grrr, I've got to make it, I can't die to this, not to some psychopathic stripper with wings."_

It was taking all the willpower he had to stay awake.

 _"I can't die here… I need to live_ _…_ _I want to live_ _…_ _I can't afford to die yet_ _…_ _I still have things I need to do...…. Mika."_

Just as he had those thoughts in his head, a sudden light appeared before him. His vision had burred to the point where he could no longer see, but he could hear footsteps approaching him, and before he blacked-out he heard a soft voice.

"You truly are strong to still be standing even now." She said. "If you desire to live, then I'll save you and in exchange, you will live for my sake."

* * *

 **And that's the first chapter on my Shirou's story, and like I said this Shirou is strong. As for my OC's Ren Todo, and Takeru Saito, they're also important to the story so heads up. As for Aika being his ex, that's just something I wanted to do alright. As you saw, my Shirou has less of the who "Fuck everything" attitude and is a little more open, the thing is, that's how I'd want Shirou to be. And as for his eyes and aura, that's something that will be explained later, but trust me it's a long story. BTW what did you think of the fight, was it to brutal?**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	2. This Could Turn Out To Be A Good Thing

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. I decided to go back and edit old chapter to correct spelling and grammar mistakes, I'll do the rest of them as well.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **New life, This Could Turn Out To Be A Good Thing**

* * *

Pain.

His whole body was aching...

No that wasn't the right description.

It felt like his body was cut and slashed in many different places, While there was a fire burning inside him. It hurt just to move.

There was an upside to this, feeling pain meant he was still alive.

After realizing that, he started to recall the events of before, including the previous battle, his enemy who fled and blacking out due to his injuries.

But that begged the question, where was he now and who was that voice he heard.

A soft groan escaped his lips as he breathed in before getting up. Doing so fortunately didn't cause much pain.

Next, he opened his eyes to see where he was, soon he had to resist the urge to close them again, he was suddenly pained by the sunlight which felt like it was sizzling his skin on contact. This was odd considering he had no such problem with sunlight yesterday.

"Nnnnng….!" he growled in pain. After a few minutes, his eyes adjusted. looking around at the familiar furniture and size of the room, he realized he was in his own bedroom, and that he was resting in his bed.

Now the question was how he was back in his room, Shirou decided to sit up and process all this.

He thought back to the events of yesterday, trying to figure out if there was something he missed.

He was under no delusion that it could have been a dream, everything was normal until that moment. And the battle was still fresh in his mind, even in his worst nightmares, he could never imagine something as surreal as that.

The darkness, The killing intent, the feeling of her light piercing through his flesh.

A dream could never have had those things.

That strange girl, or rather the angel dressed like a stripper, Yuuma Amano, had attacked him with the desire to end his life.

He fought back and succeeded in tearing apart both her arms.

She gravely wounded him, and he used the last of his strength to crush her beneath his feet.

She flew away before the finishing blow.

And he was left there before passing out.

The question on whether he would have survived or not was up for debate. He was used to taking large amounts of damage, and it's possible he could still live despite the state he was in.

The thing that didn't make sense was, how he was back home. He could only imagine that whoever showed up at the end brought him here with the intention of saving his life. But that raised more questions like how did they know where he lived, why did they save him, how much did they know about what happened, and most of all where were they now.

None of this made any sense.

"I don't understand what's going on here." Shirou asked himself, placing a hand on his stomach.

"Unnn…mmm…" Hearing a sweet-sounding voice right next to him, that was undoubtedly aroused stopped his thoughts.

Shirou turned to his face the left side of the bed to see the source of the voice, what he saw was a girl with hair that was a deep crimson much like the colour of blood and pale skin that looked softer than silk and shone from the suns light. Besides that, she was completely Naked and because of that Shirou could see everything, including her large breasts and pink nipples, all the way down to her hairless nether regions.

Shirou was surprised and confused at the sight of seeing this girl out of nowhere.

He kept his cool however since it was nothing he hadn't seen before, though to be fair she was more developed they any other girl he'd seen before.

"I have several questions." That was all Shirou could say about all this.

Shirou then rested his hand on his jaw and tried to make sense of this randomness.

"I'm pretty sure we didn't do it, otherwise the bed wouldn't be so neat and tidy. So why the hell is there a girl in my bed?"

{Maybe you drank one too many and brought her home last night!}

Mika answered his question from her room on the other side of his wall.

"Mika! first of all, I only drank one bottle yesterday. Secondly, it was in the morning and third I would NEVER bring a random girl home for sex and will deny it if anyone says otherwise! I'm insulted that you would even think that." Shirou said with his arms crossed.

{Well even if you say that, how do you explain the woman sleeping next to you, and your lack of memory as to why?}

Shirou noticed she had a point there.

"Oookay, I know this looks bad, but I assure you I'm innocent, innocent I tell ya!"

{Well Brosuke I want to believe you, but you're not giving me much proof.}

"Well, you can't prove I did anything!"

{That may be true, but you can't prove that you didn't since you can't remember.}

 _"Damn, she's got me there..."_ Shirou then noticed what was going on and became irritated.

"What am I doing? I have nothing to prove, besides all that, I need to find out what's going on here, and what you're doing isn't helping!"

{Aww, you ruined it, we could have gone on longer, it was getting fun.}

Shirou face-palmed.

"Look I'll deal with you later, right now I've got to figure "all this" out."

{Very well then, I shall desist.}

Shirou let out I sigh of relief. "Okay now back to the matter at hand."

"You certainly have an interesting relationship with your sister."

"That's one way of seeing it, but It's tiresome nonetheless." Shirou replied. "...Wait."

Shirou turned back to the crimson-haired girl to now see that she was awake, she was laying there not caring that her body was on full display, her eyes were a gentle blue colour, and she smiled at him as if everything was normal. "Good morning."

"Good morning? that's what you start with?" Shirou didn't know why she was so casually with all this. "I'd of preferred if you at least told me your name first."

The girl was surprised by that question. "Wait... you don't know who I am?"

Now Shirou was confused. "Umm, should I?"

"We go to the same school, I'm an upperclassman, I'm pretty well known."

"Oh, well sorry but you don't seem familiar." Shirou shrugged.

She was now at a loss for words, she didn't expect that someone from her school didn't know her. She had just assumed everyone knew her by now, after all, it wasn't like there was anyone else with crimson hair.

"Uhh, okay then, I'm Rias Gremory."

"And I'm Shirou Tsukiharu." Shirou replied.

"Yes I know, and I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here."

Shirou nodded. "Yeah among other things too, but for now let me ask, why are you naked?"

"You are too you know." Rias pointed out.

"Wha…" Shirou looked down and saw that she was right, he was indeed as naked as she was, the difference was that his torso was still covered in his bandages, although there were some openings here and there and some holes from where he was stabbed. Besides that, everything else was out in the open.

Shirou then scratched his right cheek. "Huh, you'd think I would've noticed that."

"Don't worry it was just something to heal your wounds."

"That doesn't make sense, how does this lead to that."

"Very much so actually, you see I can only heal you with skin on skin contact." Rias explained.

"You can't be serious, that sounds like something from an H-game..." Shirou then noticed something in her words. "Wait... you healed me?"

"That's right, you're welcome." Rias said with a smile.

"Then you're the one that appeared after the fight?"

"Correct again, and let me just say congratulations on that victory, not many humans can defeat a Fallen Angel like that." Rias praised him.

"Fallen Angel? God this keeps gettin—" And that when it happened, Shirou suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, like his brain was pierced. "Augh!… What the hell?"

Rias giggled at that. "I forgot to mention this, but you shouldn't say that name anymore."

"Name?" Shirou groaned rubbing his temples, trying to soothe his head pain. "You mean God?" And just like that, it happened again. "Augh!… I'm in hell!"

She giggled some more. "Yes that, invoking that name in any oath or prayer will cause pain." Rias clarified.

"How does that work?" Shirou asked while rubbing his head.

"I'll explain in detail later, for now considering your change, it would be easy if you learned to live without swearing to God or praying."

"I doubt that'll be a problem considering I don't pray." Shirou said.

"I know it sounds weird, but—…really?" Rias wasn't expecting that response. "You don't mind never speaking God's name or practising religion ever again?"

Shirou sighed. "Truth is, back when I was a kid, I was a huge believer of the Christian faith, but after a while both my faith and my beliefs died, so no I don't mind at all." Shirou looked out the window with a troubled expression.

Rias looked at him with pity in her eyes. "That sounds like a sad story. Want to talk about it?"

"No. I've said enough already."

"Does it have anything to do with what's beneath those bandages you're wearing?"

Shirou stopped and then looked at her seriously. "You didn't look beneath them did you?"

Rias shook her head. "I was planning to, but when your sister heard I was going to heal you, she insisted I not remove your bandages, so I healed you though them."

Shirou's expression relaxed at that. "Then I appreciate that, but my answer is the same."

"You sure about that."

"Look make no mistake, you brought me back here and patched me up, and I'm grateful for that. However you're still a stranger that I just met, I know nothing about you so I'm not just going to tell you something personal about myself just like that."

Rias heard his words and nodded. "I suppose that's fair, I won't ask anymore."

"Good, now then you can explain what the hell happened yesterday." Shirou said impatiently. "What was that girl and why did she want to kill me, I've been cool about this until now but I think a deserve an explanation already."

"Don't worry I'll explain," Rias assured. "Though I'm a little surprised, I half expected you to think of yesterdays events as nothing more than a dream, and deny everything at this point."

"Yeah well not me, I doubt it could have been a dream considering I never went to sleep, and more than that I've still got the pain in my body to prove it." Shirou pointed out.

"I guess that's true, very well then let me introduce myself properly." Rias then smiled. "I am Rias Gremory… and I am a Devil!"

Shirou blinked. "Come again?"

"The day before you were deceived and almost killed by a creature known as a Fallen Angel as I said before." Rias continued. "In order to save you from the brink of death, I performed a ritual on you that made you the same as me."

Shirou took notice to the last thing she said. "Wait, you mean I'm..."

"That's right, you were given a new life as a Devil."

The was a long silence that followed after Rias's declaration.

Shirou then sighed and got up.

"Look I'm still not getting all of it, so let's hear the whole thing downstairs." Shirou then gets out of bed and stands on the floor. "And since I think we've stayed undressed long enough, let's get some clothes on first. You change in the hall."

Rias was confused by that request. "Why?"

"Because I'm also going to change my bandages," Shirou then narrowed his eyes. "And not to be vague or anything but, you've already seen everything I have and showed me what you've got." Shirou gestured to their bare bodies. "So if there was ever a time for you to respect my privacy, it would be now."

Rias got out of bed and picked up her clothes. "Alright, I'll get dressed and wait for you downstairs."

Rias then walked out the door, and Shirou began getting ready.

* * *

"So what you're saying is _you_ are a Devil?" Mika said, pointing at Rias from the other side of the breakfast table. Rias who was now wearing her student uniform, nodded in response, smiling pleasantly. She then points at Shirou. "And you're saying Big Bro has now been reborn into a Devil as well?"

"That's the gist of what she said." Shirou confirmed, leaning on his arms tiredly.

"It's the truth." Rias confirmed, passively taking a sip of her coffee. "It's fine if you don't believe me, Shirou said he wanted you to hear this too, so here we are, but I know most humans would have trouble taking this seriously. It's a common reaction."

"No. I believe you." Mika said immediately. After adding a large amount of sugar to her coffee she takes a slip.

Rias blinked. Surprised by the fact that once again, someone believed her words instantly. "Really?"

Mika nodded. "Well sure." Mika let out a yawn. She drank more of her coffee the get ride of her drowsiness. "Brotato wouldn't lie to me about something like this, so if he vouches that it's for real then I believe it."

Rias was surprised by that reasoning, but welcome it. "Well I'm glad, that makes thing easier."

"Besides, bro-doken would never bring home some random girl home for sex, that's not his thing."

Shirou narrowed his eyes at her. "Really 'cause that's not what you said just a moment ago."

"Aw come on," Mika waved at him. "You know I didn't mean it."

"Yeah, sure I do." Shirou said sarcastically.

"And I know she can't be your girlfriend because I'm the one you're going to be shipped with next."

Shirou almost fell off his chair at that.

"You're still on about that?!" Shirou hissed.

"Well of course I am," Mika said seriously. "Do you have any idea how upset I was when you started dating, just be glad I didn't have I problem with Aika or I would have said something. Now it's me who's route you're going to follow."

"I told you, I'm not doing the "little sister route"!" Shirou barked, feeling annoyed by the fact that he was even having this conversation. "I thought I've made it clear, I'm not a siscon, you damned Otaku!" That gave Rias some time to pause, looking back and forth between the little Sister and the older Brother as if she was realizing something she hadn't noticed before.

Mika shrugged, not seeing this as something to get upset about. "All I'm saying is consider it and I'm okay with it anytime." Mika said casually. "You know it's okay to change your mind, and no one would blame you for falling for your super adorable, uber, amazing Otaku baby sister. Since we can't get together by law, we could have our own little ceremony when you're finally ready."

Shirou resisted the strong urge building up inside his head that was telling him to slam his face in the table.

"Why can't you understand? This isn't some stupid eroge! There are major problems with doing something like that."

"Actually there aren't." Rias chipped in getting their attention. "Devils may look a lot like humans, but we're built different, the problems a human would have don't exist for us and now you."

"Seriously?" Mika asked amazed. "That's great!"

"No it's not." Shirou didn't cave. "It's still my Sister!"

"Well that's not out of the norm for us either," Rias explained. "In Devils' society, it's actually not uncommon for some siblings to become intimate. I've seen it a number of times."

"Wow, Devils must have a lovely community." Mika commented.

"Why thank you." Rias responded flattered.

"Stop throwing fuel on the fire!" Shirou berated Rias. He then looked at Mika. "And you, being legal or socially accepted isn't the problem, the problem is I don't want to de-flower my sister, Devil or otherwise!"

"Cooomme ooonn!" Mika whined. "At least think about it."

Rias looked from Shirou to Mika to Shirou to Mika to Shirou "..." She put deep thought into her next words. "I ship it."

"Why do you keep encouraging her?" Shirou asked, getting fed up at this point. "This is incest you're talking about."

"Devils are supposed to encourage sin." Rias said coyly. "You might find that there are a lot of taboos that you won't mind breaking at some point."

Shirou's eyebrow twitched. He had enough nut-jobs in his life without someone who apparently supported his little sister's laid back Brother-complex.

Back when they were little it was cute.

 _(One day when I'm bigger, I'll be Big Bro's waifu!)_

But when Mika got older, she never quiet dropped the sentiment. It wasn't as though she was pursuing him like some stalkerish love-sick puppy, but it made him horribly uncomfortable that she was more than willing to become his "last resort"...well, maybe not "more than willing". "More like "just willing". It was hard to put a definite label to it, it wasn't as though she outright said, "I love you Big Bro! Let's be together forever and ever and I won't let any other hoe have you!" or anything more obsessive like that, She obviously didn't mind him dating someone else, it just seemed she wanted to get in on it.

Although she always repeated the same thing, Mika was always pretty vague about whether she was joking or not.

Shirou once came home after having sex with Aika, and Mika came up to him and said with a straight face.

 _(Mind showing me how you did it?)_

-was what she said.

How was he supposed to respond to that. Especially when she said it with the same passive eyes she always had.

"Okay! I think it's time we get going!" Shirou said getting up from his chair, and just wanting to end this discussion.

"Yes, I believe we should get going." Rias agreed and she got up too, having finished her coffee. "We should be getting to school."

"Wait school?" Shirou turned his head to face her feeling confused, despite the strangeness of the conversation they just had, he still had more questions to ask her, yet her she was talking about going to school.

"Yes, School." Rias said, gesturing to time on her watch. "We're going to be late."

"But I still have stuff I want to ask you about."

"I'll answer any question you have after school." Rias then made her way to the front door.

Shirou sighed. "Fine.…" Not seeing any other option, he decided to just go along with it for now. He followed her to the front door, but before they left, he turned back one more time to Mika. "Take a shower, Mika!"

"Whaaaaat!" Mika whined. "I took one last niiiight!"

"You didn't use soap _like I told you._ " Shirou barked. "I can smell your stink all the way from here!"

"but—"

"DO IT!"

SLAM!

Shirou slammed the door shut, and he and Rias began their walk to school.

* * *

He forgot to take something into account.

Shirou Tsukiharu was many things.

A Delinquent. Brawler. Student. Protector of the weak. Merciless destroyer of his enemies. An under-age drinker. He was all those things and many more.

But "Attention seeker" was not something he was. Even though he normally stands out anyway, he didn't want to go out of his way to be even more noticed. The looks on everyone's faces whenever he passed by them grated on his nerves to no end.

Apparently Rias wasn't kidding when she said she was well known. But how could he have guessed that she was literally the most popular girl in all the campus.

The gossip had already started.

"Princess Rias and the King of Destruction?"

"He must have threatened her."

"A forbidden romance between two secret lovers come to light!"

"It can't be! Rias-oneesame left me for that demon!"

"I don't know, they kind-of look good together."

It was really starting to push Shirou over the edge, fortunately though he was able to hold it in. The Pro-Shirou crowd was expressing their amazement by this scene believing it to be the ideal match-up. While the Anti-Shirou crowd was spreading their disdain for this pairing and outright refusal to expect it.

Shirou then looked at Rias to see how she felt about this. Surprisingly enough she didn't seem fazed by this, she walked without a care about the gazes on her much like he did yesterday.

 _"I wonder how she can be OKAY with all this?"_ He thought to himself as he rested his gaze upon Rias. Every movement was elegant and alluring, the wind carries a sweet scent emanating from her body. It was a relaxing smell, one that put his nerves at ease. He quickly stopped himself however, not wanting to explain why he was sniffing Rias.

They soon approached the front entrance to the school. It was very awkward walking next to someone who may as well be a real princess. It was like a Rogue being put next to a... well _princess_. It was hard to imagine any right way to go about walking beside her. They now entered the main hallway.

"I'll send someone to fetch you later." Rias said.

"Fetch me?" Shirou asked, raising an eyebrow. "And how will this fetching work exactly?"

"Don't worry." Rias responded. "Just hang out till final bell, they'll come to your class to get you, they'll introduce themselves so you'll know it's okay."

Shirou nodded and Rias walked away, leaving Shirou alone with his thoughts. While he was tempted to just leave halfway through the day, he really needed answers, so to his dismay he had no choice but to attend the whole day of school.

* * *

Shirou was now seating in his seat by his desk. The final bell had just rung and he was now waiting for whoever was coming to take him to Rias. While waiting he thought about the events of today.

More rumours had started up by the student body after the word had spread on how he and Rias had walked to school together this morning. Sometimes it really bothered him on how vivid their imagination could get. On one side, they thought it was the start of a forbidden love between the two of them, and Rias was able to bring out the kind soul hidden inside of him and he in return would protect her like a knight in shining armor. The other side believes that Shirou is choosing to follow his demonic impulses and sink his lustful desire on Rias, intending to ravage her completely.

Shirou personally thought they were all idiots.

"Hey Shirou."

Shirou looked to his right and saw Ren and Aika approaching.

"Oh, hey you two." Shirou greeted them.

"What was up with you yesterday?" Ren asked. "You left school and all of a sudden, you show up today with Rias Gremory?"

"There are a lot of rumours going on about the two of you right now." Aika mentioned to him.

Shirou sighed. "Look, whatever the rumours say, I guarantee they aren't true."

"Really?"

"Yeah Ren, really."

"Well, the day's over so mind explaining it to us then?" Aika requested.

"I'd like to but I'm waiting for someone."

As Shirou said that, the three of them heard flustered screams coming from the girls in the classroom. They looked to see a handsome blonde youth appear and the girls all seemed charmed by his very presents. he was a handsome young man with short blond hair, bluish-grey eyes and a mole underneath his left eye. He wears the Kuoh Academy boys' student uniform. The youth made his why to Shirou.

"Hello there." He greeted with a polite smile.

Shirou blinked, he was confused by his sudden appearance but rolled with it. "Ah, hello?"

"I'm here to fetch you." He specified.

Shirou now understood. "Oh, so you're the guy huh. Well great then let's go."

Shirou got up from his seat. Unfortunately to his dismay, the others seemed to misunderstand the implications of their meeting.

Squeals and flustered screams erupted from the girls not-so-subtly gathering behind the blonde.

"Tsukiharu-kun and Kiba-kun! I love it!"

"Kuoh's Prince and Dark Prince!"

"BL4Ever!"

"Who do you think would be on top?"

"Hmmmm… Maybe they take turns?"

"What would the circumstances behind their romance be?"

"I bet it was passionate and wistful!"

All their comments and gossip was making Shirou more annoyed, and to make matters worse, Ren and Aika joined in.

"Wait, is this who you were waiting for?" Ren asked, looking as though he just realized something.

Aika decided to have fun with this. She pretends to look upset and placed a hand over her mouth while looking to the side.

"Alas, Shirou has left me to find love with his stud-muffin."

A drop of sweat fell from the back of Kiba's head as he felt uncomfortable by all this excitement.

Shirou however decided enough was enough.

"NNOOOOO!" Shirou slammed his hand on his desk, silencing everyone in the room.

Shirou pointed to Ren. "Look, it's not what you're thinking!" Shirou then pointed to Aika. "And it's not what you're thinking!" He then narrowed his eyes and pointed to the group of girls. "And I don't know what your thinking, but it's probably wrong!" Shirou then grabbed his book-bag. "Now everyone just forgot what you saw and I will be leaving!"

Despite saying that, Shirou just stood there for a few minutes and then looked at Kiba annoyed. "...Well, I'm waiting."

Kiba was confused for a second, but then realized he was supposed to escort him. "Oh right sorry. Follow me."

Kiba then leads the way and the two of them left the classroom.

* * *

"Mind telling me where we're going?" Shirou asked.

The two of them were now walking away from the school building and into the further ends of campus.

"Don't worry, we're almost there." Kiba assured him. "Aside from that, things got pretty interesting back there."

Shirou scowled at being reminded of what happened a moment ago.

"Don't even remind me of that, worst part is despite what I said, I'm pretty sure they're still gonna start rumours before long."

"True, this school does have a habit of that." Kiba replied. "Still I didn't think you had a problem with that Tsukiharu-kun."

Shirou was a little curious by his choice of words.

"Wait you know about me?"

"Not in detail, but I've heard rumours about you." Kiba specified.

"Well that makes sense, these days I can't go one day without someone starting a bizarre rumour."

"Sorry for the trouble."

"On an unrelated subject, I've also heard of you." Shirou admitted.

Kiba wasn't expecting that. "You have, when?"

"Are you kidding, who hasn't heard how you, the "Super hot bishounen that can make a girl reach her climax with just a wink"."

Kiba smiled while scratching the back of his head.

"I see, I was hoping you didn't hear those." Kiba said awkwardly.

Shirou shrugged. "Don't worry about it, I never put much stoke in what they think."

"So I've noticed, still the rumours about you are much harder to follow."

"Why's that?" Shirou asked.

"Well the story changes depending on who you hear it from, and honestly even after meeting you I still can't tell which were true or not."

"To be fair, we just meet." Shirou reminded him.

"True, but you already get the basic gist of who I am, so I'd hope to learn a bit about you." Kiba admitted.

"What do you think?"

"What?" Kiba responded.

"What kind of person do _you_ think I am." Shirou clarified. "Everyone else just decides for themselves based on what they think, so you do the same.

Kiba thought for a moment, as he didn't know how to answer that. He then told him what he thought.

"I think you're someone who simply does things on his own terms, and everyone else just takes it too seriously."

Kiba gave his honest opinion based on what he had seen so far, and he waited for Shirou's response.

Shirou himself just stared at Kiba processing what he had just said, then his response surprised Kiba.

"Huh, we've only spoken once and your answer was closer than most." Shirou said casually. "Not bad, I think we'll get along."

Kiba inwardly sighed in relief, worried he might have offended him. "Thank you."

With their conversation at its end, the two of them finally arrived at their destination.

"We're here." Kiba said.

"This place?" Shirou said, feeling unsure. "Looks like it's barely standing."

He had been led to the old school building on the outskirts of campus. It used to be the main school building back when the school was first built, but when the expansion and increase of the school prestige came along, it was replaced by the new larger school building, leaving this place empty and run down.

"Don't worry, it looks much nicer inside. Let's go" Kiba assured him.

The two boys made their way inside, and Shirou found out that Kiba was right, it was much nicer on the inside. The floor was so clean it shined, the walls looked they held up much better than outside, everything looked new.

"Huh, you weren't kidding." Shirou said impressed.

Kiba smiled. "Glad you like it."

"So does Rias own all of this?"

"Well sort of, her father actually owns everything on campus, but this is her personal base." Kiba explained.

"Wait, why would she need a base? And why choose someplace in the middle of nowhere?" Shirou questioned.

"Relax, it'll all make sense in a minute."

As they made their way through the building, they soon reached the stairs and climbed them to reach the second floor. They kept walking till they reached a specific room with a sign on top of the door.

[Occult Research Club]

"Huh, Occult Research Club." Shirou stared with half-lidded eyes before turning to Kiba. "How did you even get permission for this?"

Kiba smiled amused. "Trust me, it's just a name, what we actually do is much different."

Kiba then knocked on the door. "Chief, I've brought him."

"Come in," A voice replied almost immediately.

Kiba opened the door, leading Shirou inside. Shirou entered wondering what was awaiting him this time.

One part of the room was covered with various weird signs and symbols that Shirou couldn't understand at all. They looked like some kind of summoning circles for dark rituals you'd see done by Satanists or heretics. There was an especially large one in the middle of the room. There were sofas, tables, and old-looking paintings that made the entire room look as though it was from a completely different era.

Sitting on one of the two sofas facing each other was a white-haired loli munching on sweets. She is a petite girl with white hair and hazel eyes. The front of her hair has two long bangs going past her shoulders and several loose bangs hanging over her forehead, while the back has a short bob cut. She wears a black cat-shaped hair clip on both sides of her hair. She was currently wearing the Kuoh academy girl's student uniform.

Her appearance completely threw off the whole "unholy" vibe this place had going for it. She was just so tiny and cute that it was hard to take her seriously despite the fact that she had a completely stoic look on her face.

"This is Shirou Tsukiharu," Kiba said gesturing to Shirou.

The girl paused from her snack, which Shirou recognized, to stare at him. "…Hey."

Was all she said.

"Sup."

Was all he said.

"This girl is Koneko Toujou." Kiba said introducing the loli. "She's a 1st-Year student."

"Umm… Okay, don't really remember asking though." Shirou responded.

Soon Shirou could hear a strange noise, as he listened he recognized it as the sound of running water.

"What the?" Shirou looked around to try and see the source. "Where is…?"

Shirou then saw another room that was covered by a curtain, and inside that room was undoubtedly a shower with the curtain drawn. More then that, he could see a womanly silhouette through the shower curtain, and steam pouring out through the sides and over the top.

Shirou simply stared with half-lidded eyes, knowing it must be Rias. "Really?" Shirou groaned. "She really couldn't have done this before I got here?"

"Oh, Shirou are you here already?" The voice of Rias called out in the shower. "Hang on, I'll be done in a moment."

"Your clothes have been laid out for when you're ready, Chief." An unfamiliar voice said.

"Thank you, Akeno." Rias sighed in relief, letting hot water wash all over her.

Another girl, perhaps a year older than him like Rias, came out from behind the curtain, almost immediately turning her attention to Shirou.

Akeno is a beautiful young woman with a voluptuous figure with breasts that might even be bigger than the ones on Rias, very long black hair and violet eyes. Her hair is tied in a long ponytail, reaching all the way down to her legs with two strands sticking out from the top and sloping backwards, with an orange ribbon keeping it in place. Like most of the girls at Kuoh Academy, she wears the customary Kuoh Academy girls' school uniform, along with black calf-length socks.

"So you're the boy that Rias brought into our group~." She said in a pleasant tone as she smiled at him.

"Yeah…" Shirou wasn't paying attention, instead he kept his eyes on the shower. "Does she do that often?"

Akeno was amused by his question. "No, she usually showers at home, why were you hoping to get a closer look~"

Shirou then looked at her and was about to say something, but then stopped himself. "I won't even dignify that with a response."

"Aww, that's no fun." Akeno said sounding disappointed but still giggled.

Shirou then looked at her closer and narrowed his eyes, "Why do I feel a metric fuck-tone of Impure thoughts from you."

Akeno's expression didn't change, she simply placed a hand over her mouth and looked away.

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about~"

"…He's actually right though." Koneko added from her seat.

"I'm actually surprised you noticed so quickly." Kiba agreed with an apologetic smile.

Shirou shrugged. "I'm just good at reading people, It's just an instinct thing."

Rias then walked out of the shower completely clothed and seat down in her desk.

"Thank you for waiting."

"Rias." Shirou said.

"Shirou-kun," Kiba whispered interrupted him. "She prefers you call her Chief."

"Well, I'm not calling her that, that's ridiculous." Shirou immediately replied.

Shirou then turned to face her with half-lidded eyes. "Wow, first my bedroom and now this, do you just love being Naked around me, or do you do this for everyone?"

Rias looked amused and smiled at him. "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about~"

"Would you cut that out!" Shirou snapped. "It was bad enough the first time,"

Rias then gestured to the couch. "Take a seat."

Shirou sighed. "Fine… This better be worth it."

Shirou then sat down on the couch opposite from Koneko.

"Now that you're here." Rias said. "Let's discuss the reason I brought you here."

"Right, you made me wait all day for this."

"Well, first of all, let me begin by welcoming you as the newest member of the Occult Research Club."

"Hey, you taking the wrong steps." Shirou interrupted her. "I didn't come here to join a club, I came here to get answers. "What was Yuuma Amono? Why did she want to kill me? And what's all this Devil stuff about?" Shirou then looked at her seriously. "Answer me, or I'm leaving."

Rias looked at his gaze and choose to straight with him "Very well then, let me begin by saying this club is more than just a hobby, It's also a cover for us Devils."

Shirou took notice to the last thing she said and raised an eyebrow. "Us?"

Rias nodded. "That's right I'm not the only Devil in this room."

Shirou blinked then looked back at the others. "Wait, then you guys are-"

They all nodded with a smile.

"That's right."

"You guessed it~"

"...Yep."

Shirou frowned. "Huh, you'd think I would've seen that coming."

Rias continued with her explanation. "And the person known as Yuuma Amano was a Fallen Angel."

Shirou scratched the top of his head. "Yeah. You said that before, but I still don't know what that is."

"Then we'll start from the beginning: We, the Devils have been at war with the Fallen Angels since ancient times. We have been fighting over the possession of the Underworld, which is also known as Hell in the Human world. The Underworld is split into two areas, one for Devils and one for Fallen Angels. The Devils form pacts with humans and receive their sacrifices and increase their strength. The Fallen Angels on the other hand control Humans to eliminate Devils. At this point, the Angels come in to destroy these two races on God's orders, which creates the Three Factions, also known as the Trinity Factions. This has been going on since ancient times."

Shirou took a minute to process her explanation. "I get it, so basically the Devils and Fallen Angels got into a huge turf war over who gets the Underworld, and the Angels who saw them fighting decided it was a good chance to take out both of them, and now there's a huge war between all of them."

Rias blinked, feeling a little surprised. "Ahh… Yes, that is a simplified way to look at it. I'm a little surprised you followed all that so quickly."

Shirou then crossed his arms behind his head. "It wasn't hard, I've seen something along those lines before in Middle-School. There were a bunch delinquents who formed street gangs, there were three gangs that were the biggest ones in town and they hated each other. After a while, two of them got into a huge turf war and started fighting, after a while the third one joined in too and it became a three-way brawl between all of them."

They all were surprised by the story he just told them. Considering the scenario he just described was the Three Factions in a nutshell.

.

.

.

"Okay then..." Rias decided to just continue. "I guess that helps too."

"Which side were you on?" Kiba asked.

"None, just like right now, I wasn't involved with any side, which begs the question." Shirou turned back to Rias. "Since Yuuma was one of these Fallen Angels, why'd she come to kill me? I didn't do anything to piss off her bosses."

"It's because you were dangerous." Rias said. "She believed the power inside of you was a threat to the Fallen Angels and chose to kill you, though she failed."

"My power? You mean the Sacred Gear?"

"Yes, it- Wait, what did you say?" Rias asked surprised once again. "How do you know that name?"

"Before we started fighting, she said a lot of things I really didn't get, but one of them that I remember was that she said something about killing me because of my "Sacred Gear"." Shirou explained. "So what is it?"

"I see." Rias decided not to ask how he found the time to remember that while fighting for his life. "The Sacred Gear is a special power bestowed on a rare few Humans by God."

"But I don't feel rare or special."

"Really? Not even after you managed to best a Fallen Angel with nothing but your bare hands?" Rias said unable to believe he didn't think he was special after a feat like that.

"Yeah, but I didn't use any strange power to do that." Shirou pointed out.

Rias frowned. "You know, I'm telling you some crazy stuff right now. You could try being a little more amazed! Or terrified! Or something."

"No offence, but after you've already seen it, having someone explain it isn't very exciting." Shirou casually responded.

"…He's right y'know." Koneko agreed.

Rias sighed. "Moving on, despite what you might think, Sacred Gears are a big deal." Rias explained. "A lot of famous people in history possessed one, some of which you might recognize."

"But you just said they're rare and special, ergo a lot of famous people in history didn't possess one and still turned out fine." Shirou pointed out.

Rias just stared at him for a minute, she then breathed in and then out. "Your ability to find flaw in everything I say aside. There are a lot of Sacred Gear that are only useful in Human society, but there are some that can pose a threat to non-Humans like Devils and Fallen Angels."

"So in-other-words, The Fallen Angels think I'm a ticking time bomb that will blow up in their faces, and they want me gone before I go off." Shirou deduced.

"Sad but true." Rias noted. "That's why we're going to help you summon your Sacred Gear."

"Well, I'm convinced." Shirou clapped and stood up. "So how's this work?"

"First raise your hand in the air."

"Okay." Shirou lifts his arm in the air. "Should I wave it like I just don't care?" He asked in a joking tone.

Rias held in her laugh while the others including Koneko let out a small giggle.

"Very funny, now be serious." Rias berated him. "Now concentrate, focus on an image of power and draw upon the energy of the Sacred Gear inside of you. Now it's alright if you don't get it on the first try. Summoning power like this is—"

"Done." Shirou called out, showing a red gauntlet with a green gem embedded on the hand covering his left arm from the hand to the wrist. "So is this it?"

Rias went wide-eyed. "What-How?!"

"I did what you told me." Shirou responded plainly. "I thought about the image I thought was the most powerful, myself."

"That's all it took?"

"Of course it was, for me I can't imagine anything in this world more powerful than I, Shirou-Sama."

They all descended into an awkward silence, as Rias tried to comprehend how their newest member was able to adapt to things at an unreasonably fast pace.

"Well then," Rias said. "Now that you've summoned it, you can use it anywhere, at any time, you did very well."

"I don't know." Shirou said looking at his Gear sceptical. "It doesn't really seem like much, and I don't even know what it does."

"Don't underestimate it!" Rias said dead-serious. "The Fallen Angels saw it as enough threat to try and kill you, you'll need to be cautious."

"Well, I still think I can beat her without it." Shirou said not convinced.

"Shirou, I'd advise against doing something like trying to fight her again." Rias said unwaveringly. "After what happened last time, she'll do whatever she can to kill you, and she won't have any intention on a fair fight, you can't handle a group of Fallen Angels."

Shirou just smirked at that. "Don't count me out yet. I still have an ace up my sleeve that she doesn't know about."

Rias was surprised by his confidence, she was tempted to ask what it was but didn't want to encourage his idea of fighting the Fallen Angels.

"Even so, you still can't." Rias said. "Doing so will put us at risk too."

Shirou was now confused. "What, why? what does my fighting them have to do with you?"

"That day, as you were on the brink of death, I saw an opportunity," Rias said. "Using my powers as a Devil, I resurrected you as my _servant._ My name is Rias Gremory, daughter of Duke Gremory. Now that we've given you your orientation, let us give you proper introductions. Everyone!"

The other members of the club stood up from their seats.

PA!

At that moment, bat-like wings sprouted from each of their backs.

Black, but different from the wings of the girl who tried to kill him, her wings were filthy and feathery like a crow.

PA!

Shirou jerked forward as a sudden force pushed from his own back, force suddenly replaced with a new weight on his back.

"What!" Shirou looked behind himself to see the same wings have sprouted from his back. "Wings?"

"My name is Kiba Yuuto. I'm a Second-Year like you, I'm a Devil too. Nice to meet you."

"…First year.…Koneko Toujou. Pleased to make your acquaintance. …I'm a Devil too."

Koneko bows her head.

"My name is Akeno Himejima, and I'm a Third-Year. I'm also the vice-president of this Occult Research Club. Nice to meet you. Even though I'm like this, I'm also a Devil. Ufufu."

Akeno bows her head very politely.

There was a silence as Shirou stared at the trio in front of him and then the wings on his back. He then stood there with his eyes shadowed by his bangs.

He then sighed. "Y'know it hadn't sunk in up until now, but I'm really not Human anymore." Shirou spoke in a quiet tone.

Rias was surprised for a different reason this time. This was the first time Shirou had shown any real emotion, she didn't expect this.

"Shirou." Rias said with pity in her eyes. "I know this sudden and a little hard to take in, but the only alternative was death."

"I know."

The rest all looked at each other not sure what say, or if they should say anything. They themselves had hard times adjusting to being Devils when they first meet Rias.

Shirou then looked at his arm covered by the Sacred Gear, and then he felt his wings that were now a part of him. Shirou then looked up, and now had a small smile.

"This could turn out to be a good thing." Those words surprised the others, they didn't expect such a sudden change of heart. "Truth is, for as long as I could remember even though I was human, I never really fit into the human world. I always felt I was different and nothing ever really made me feel like I was supposed to be here. Maybe being a Devil is the change I needed, I was already considered a demon so why not.

Rias was relieved and smiled at those words, happy that he was able to come to terms with his new existence. "That's a great way to look at it. Now, as my Devil servant, you shall live for my sake."

"PFFHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

No sooner after she said that, Shirou surprised everyone by showing emotion for the second time. This time however, he did so by bursting out in laughter, although none of were sure as to why. After a minute or so, he finally calmed down.

"Haha… Ah okay, I'm good." Shirou then looked at Rias and held up two fingers. "Two things, first of all, "live for your sake" seriously, who would ever live for the sake of someone else."

As he said that, Kiba, Akeno, and Koneko responded by raising their hands.

"…" Shirou blinked, not expecting that at all. "Okayyy… don't know what your deal is, but as for me, I don't agree with that, I live for me." Shirou said determined but then paused. "Well me and the those close to me bu-but, mainly for me, it is for my own sake that I live, and that's not changing anytime soon."

Rias was a little surprised since this was the first time one of her servants denied choosing the live for her.

Shirou wasn't done.

"Second, even though I appreciate the fact that you put me back together, that doesn't mean I'm just going to kneel over and serve you, what reason is there to stop me for just leaving now that you've answered my questions?"

"Being saved from death wasn't enough?"

"You act like I agreed to serve you if you did." Shirou pointed out. "That was just something you decide for yourself. And even if you did nothing, you can't say for sure that I wouldn't have survived even without your help."

"Good point, but how about the part where if you leave you'll become a stray and hunted down to be killed." Rias pointed out.

"I'm not worried." Shirou replied unfazed.

"And you don't have to be my servant forever." Rias added. "With enough time and a good track record, you could rise up and get servants of your own."

"Sounds interesting." Shirou considered.

"And you'll also be able to master your power and maybe even unlock new ones." Rias continued.

That one caught his attention. "I do love power." Shirou considered the possibilities. "Rias, I'll agree with this, only if you agree to follow three conditions of my first."

Rias gave a graceful nod. "I'll agree provided they're within my power, name them."

"First of all I'm not big on formalities or anything like that, so I won't call you "master" or anything like that. I'll simply call you Rias like I've been doing."

Rias thought about that request. "I don't think that will be a problem, as long as you at least call me "Chief" around other nobles."

"If I have to." Shirou said reluctantly.

"Then I accept."

"The second, I want to you to pay all my bills from now on, I mean I could do it myself but it's a pain doing that while also being a student."

"I understand, I accept." Rias answered immediately.

"Good, this is actually going pretty well." Shirou said satisfied with the rate this was going in. "This last one is the most important, and it's not negotiable. If you don't accept then the deal is off." Shirou said seriously.

"Name it." Rias responded.

"My Sister." Shirou said looking down.

"Mika?"

"Yeah, I know that by entering this world my life will be a constant danger, even more so than before. I know that I could end up dying somehow, even though I'll do everything in my power to live, you never know what might happen." Shirou then steeled his gaze. "Promise me that if something were to happen to me, you'll take care of Mika."

Everyone was shocked by his request.

"Mika is a shut-in, she can't cook, clean, or even look after herself, and personally if anything happened to her, I'd lose a chunk of my very soul." Shirou griped his chest where his heart was. "So swear to me that you'll take care of her no matter what, that means everything to me."

Silence.

.

.

.

More silence.

"Uh hello? is that a yes or." Shirou asked confused by their silence.

Everyone one of them was staring at him with sparkling, awe-stricken eyes.

"What's with you guys?" Shirou asked no feeling uncomfortable.

"His brotherly aura is so strong..."

"I never thought he could be so caring...!"

"The rumours don't do him justice at all, he's really a great guy...!"

Shirou's eye twitched, irritated by there gaze. "Stop staring at me like that!" He snapped. "It's creepy."

"If that is all you desire, then it shall be done." Rias chimed in. "But known once we make this deal, there's no going back."

"Shirou Tsukiharu is a man of his word." Shirou said unwavering.

"Then we have a deal."

Rias extended her hand, and Shirou reached out to shake it. And with that everything was settle. The others smiled at the success of bringing in a new member.

"Welcome to the Occult Research Club." Rias said with a smile.

"Let's see how this play's out." Shirou responded.

* * *

 **That's the second chapter. First of all, yes I kept the Brother-complex in Mika because let's face it, I just loved that about her, so I made my version of Mika that way too. And I thought it would be funny if Rias told her it was legal now since Shirou is now a Devil. As for Shirou's bandages, I'll let you see what's beneath them in a little while, and yes Shirou is a non-believer even though he was once a Christian. Just letting you know, that's going to be important later on.**

 **The scene with Shirou and the Occult Research Club where they explain to Shirou all he wanted to know. I decide to make him less aggressive as Shirou Fujimura simply because that's not who Shirou Tsukiharu is, he wanted answers, yes but he wasn't so impatient. Not to mention I thought it would be more fun if he kept poking holes in the things Rias said like he did with "Yuuma".**

 **Another thing was, I wanted him to show some reaction when It sunk in that he was no longer Human, the fact is he never felt he was like everyone else and honestly, he wasn't, but he was still born a Human, so I wanted him to be at least a little affected by this. As for the laughing when Rias said: "live for my sake" that just felt appropriate since It would be ridiculous for someone to live for someone they just met, why everyone else was just immediately okay with that I'll never understand.**

 **Oh and just so you know, he doesn't think of them as friends yet. It's more he's the new guy at a part-time job and they're the current work stuff, that you try to be civil around just because you want things to be easy.**

 **P.S. Just in case you didn't get it. Chief means Buchou.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	3. A Chance Encounter And How Devils Fight

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. In this chapter, you'll see one of my OC's more explained in detail and just to let you know I'd planned that from the start. And this chapter will also have another fight scene as well as a bit more into Shirou's personality, specifically how he feels on certain matters. I also introduced something from the canon that was supposed to be explained much later, but I don't count it as a spoiler so don't worry. Hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **A Chance Encounter And How Devils Fight**

* * *

SLAM

Shirou slammed the front door to his house closed behind him. Letting out a tired sigh.

"I'm home!" He walked into the living room, finding Mika spread out on the couch, with the TV on the strange magical girl show. It was called "Miracle Levia-tan" or something like that. He had never heard of it before. A box set just arrived in the mailbox one day out of the blue. Mika being Mika, just snatched it up no questions asked. He groaned. "Could you turn that crappy junk off already? I'm not in the best mood right now, I just had to deal with a whole freaking night of making unholy pacts with freaks who actually summon Devils, and after that last one, I don't even want to see another magical girl right now."

"But I wanna see iiiiiiiiiiiit!" Mika whined, not even getting up to look at him from the couch.

Honestly though that wasn't true. She was actually just laying on the couch, with a manga open over her face.

"Right." After a long day of Devil work, he wasn't in the mood for arguing. "And we all know that's not true."

"So Brorio Andretti, what did you and your merry band of Devils do today?" Mika asked, without looking away from her manga.

Shirou thought back to his day and obviously was not happy. "Well let's see, first since I was the new guy I got stuck with grunt work, which consisted of handing out a whole shit-ton of boxes filled with flyers that are used to summon Devils ALL OVER TOWN." Shirou clearly wasn't enjoying his new life so far. "And if that weren't enough, after being done with that I had to answer summon requests myself, and all I got were weirdo's, including a body-building transvestite who wants to be an anime character."

Mika paused, lowering her manga slightly. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? You kind of lost me for a moment there."

Shirou turned to her, straight-faced. "I said. Including a body-building transvestite who wants to be an anime character!"

"Which anime character?"

Of course, that's what she was interested in.

"What?" Shirou sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Hell I don't know, all those stupid, shitty magical girls look the same to me."

"Magical girl?" Was what Mika zoned in on. "What kind was it? Was it cosplay or original design?"

"I just said I don't know-UGH! I think he called it Magical Milky something or other…" He answered with a grumble. "It was hard to make out with all the posing and the yelling. I'd prefer to just forget about—"

"UWAAAGH!" Mika jumped from where she was sitting and flew towards her Brother, glomping against his back.

"Agh!"

"Which season was it from!?" Mika screamed crawling completely over Shirou so she was sitting on his shoulders, being over in a 180-degree angle so her face was upside-down face his. "WHICH SEASON WAS IT FROM!?"

"I don't give a damn! you freaking spider-monkey! only dumbass Otaku's like you people would pay attention to stupid details like that, and how are you so agile when you almost never even get up?" He then grabbed his Sister's wrists and lift her off his shoulders, after which he held her up in his arms with her face in front of his. He let out another tired sigh. "Look, Devils get summoned regularly by the people they make a pact with, if you really want to know, I'll bring you with me next time that person summons me."

An excited sparkle entered Mika eyes after hearing that. "Really?"

"Yeah, whatever you want." Shirou then walked over to the couch and put her back down where she was previously seating. "If it happens then I'll tell you, now I really need some sleep."

"Yeah, okay I'll stop," Mika muttered as Shirou begun to make his way upstairs. "There are leftovers in the fridge, you want to heat them up."

"I've lost my appetite…" And then Shirou was gone.

The day had started off as a rich opportunity, his first day of making contracts as a Devil.

Rias had told him that it was the only way, at the moment, he could work towards becoming a High-Class Devil, but however easy it sounded, that's how challenging it was.

Since people needed summoning circles to summon Devils in the first place, it was their job to provide them, and thus Shirou had to deliver a truck-load of summoning circles before he could even attempt a contract.

The others didn't have to do this, since Rias said they all have something called "familiars" that he didn't care to ask about, to do it for them, on the other hand since he was new, he had no choice but to do it himself. It was a long and gruelling process of work, and yet he still got it done.

The problems didn't stop there however. He then ran into a trend where everyone who summoned him was just some weirdo. It wasn't just the muscle-bound Magical Girl. There was also some guy who was a major Otaku, who wanted Koneko to come over so she could Princess-carry him, while she was in cosplay. And when Shirou came over, he just had him binge-read volume after volume of his favourite manga.

And that was just the beginning of his new life as a Devil.

* * *

"Ugh! This sucks…!"

Shirou sat there on a park bench, hanging his head back.

Surprising enough, Shirou was able to make pacts with all those who summoned him.

Normally failing to fulfil the request a Devil was initially summoned for renders the contract invalid.

However Shirou was somehow able to convince the summoners to except the contract regardless, thus giving him the pacts.

His method on how he did so however, is something he won't be telling Rias.

He had heard the explanation from Rias.

Devils lived off Human desires.

In order to feed off these desires, Devils made pacts with Humans.

In short, Devils did favours for Humans and they got paid in return through various means. It was basically the same as normal jobs in the Human world except the part where Devils travel to a client's location via magic teleportation.

It was an odd sensation.

Like standing inside a steam room, fully clothed, only without the moisture in the air, or the sweating afterwards.

It didn't feel bad per-say, just odd, he didn't really know what to think of it, just that it wasn't the most comfortable form of travel.

On the plus side, he learned he could fly with his wings, and after trying them out he learned something.

He loved free flying.

The feeling of soaring through the air was a dream-like experience that he couldn't get enough of, though he could only do so at night as to not be seen.

Still, he also thought of the advantage that flying could give him in future fights. That made him excited.

School was out for the day and Devil activates would not resume until later in the evening. He didn't feel like staying home so he decided to spend the day wandering around town.

Too bad Shirou realized that wasn't much of a difference. Truth be told, he was extremely bored right now, he had nothing to do and nowhere he felt like going, all he had done so far was sitting here on this bench watching the day go by.

He was especially bored since gang activity in the area had lessened considerably in the past few days as a result of increased presence of law enforcement. What few that weren't afraid of that were generally frightened by the rumours that Shirou breaks the limbs of people who annoy him or would use their blood to summon a Devil because he was secretly a demon. (The second rumour was now half-true which was ironic.) This meant there was no one for him to fight. In truth, he was trying to scare away those gangs so they wouldn't cause trouble to the people they preyed on, but he didn't consider what he was going to do once they were gone.

He thought of having another fight with Saito. But according to Rias, his physical attributes have increased a bit now that he's a Devil, and he wasn't sure if it was still safe for Saito to get hit by him powered up until he learned just how much stronger he was.

Then there was Ren.

* * *

 _Flashback: A few days ago._

Ren had arrived at the roof of the school building as per Shirou's request.

"Hey Shirou."

"Good you're here." Shirou looked around as if he was waiting for something. "Is Aika coming to?"

Ren shook his head. "Aika had something else going on, so she said she couldn't be here."

"I see, then pass on what I'm about to say."

Shirou then began to explain his own abridged version of how he met Rias, why he was together with her when walking to school, and where he went with Kiba. Obviously he omitted the part where he almost died, the part about Rias being in his bed, and anything that had to do with Devils. Shirou spent a lot of time coming up with all this, and despite not being completely full-proof, he was sure it was convincing enough for an ordinary person to believe. Shirou was now reaching the end of his story.

"And that's how it went."

Ren nodded. "I get it now, so Kiba came to take you to Rias?"

Shirou shrugged. "Yeah, and now I'm a member of her club."

"Yeah, as a Devil."

"That's right as a…" Shirou stopped.

He immediately took notice to what Ren had just said, he asked again hoping he heard wrong.

"Wait Ren, what did you just say?"

Ren then had a wide smile on his face.

"You're a Devil aren't you."

Shirou was now wide-eyed.

"Ren you know about Devils, how, I mean when—"

Shirou stopped realizing this situation had happened before.

Ren laughed a little. "Not so funny the other-way around huh?"

"Okay, for the record I never said it was funny." Shirou argued. "Anyway answer me, how'd you know I was a Devil?"

"It's not just you." Ren pointed out. "All the members of the Occult Research Club are Devils, I've known that since I first came to this school."

Now Shirou was really shocked, this was not going at all how he expected.

"Okay, you said what you know, so tell me how you know?"

"I've known about the Supernatural my whole life, and that's because I'm part of that world."

Shirou was confused at that. "Wait, you mean you're a Devil too?"

Ren smiled amused. "Not exactly."

Ren then took a step back and released a strange aura around himself. After which to Shirou's shock and wonder, Ren's eye pupils become slit-like a wolf's, his teeth sharpen a bit looking like fangs, and the biggest changes of all were two scruffy animal ears appeared on his head and a scruffy tail popped out from behind him.

Shirou honestly didn't know how to react, this was a much bigger shock than himself becoming a Devil.

"Surprised?" Ren asked, still smiling.

Shirou slowly nodded his head.

"I had a feeling you would be."

Shirou got over his shock enough to ask. "Ren… What are you?"

"Well, to put it plainly I'm a Youkai." Ren admitted.

"Youkai? those exist?"

"You're one to talk mister Devil." Ren countered.

"I just found out about all this yesterday!" Shirou defended. "And Rias never said a word about Youkai!"

"That makes sense since she didn't think you'd be meeting one so soon. Or the fact that there was one attending this school for that matter."

"Wait, Rias and the others don't know about you?" Ren shook his head. "Then how come you know about them?"

"Youkai are different from most creatures, we use a special ability called Senjutsu. It's an ability that lets us sense a person's life energy and the energy of the nature around us, and we can also use it the find people who are hiding their own aura, while at the same time conceals our own." Ren explained. "I knew what Devils felt like so I noticed immediately and they didn't notice me."

Shirou was actually impressed. "Wow, that actually amazing."

"Yeah, I think so too."

"But wait, if you're a Youkai, what are you doing in a place like this?"

Ren thought about it for a moment and then decided to explain.

"Well, the truth is, I'm actually a half-Youkai."

"What…? Half…?" Shirou clearly didn't get it.

"Let me explain, Rias probably already told you about the Trinity Factions," Shirou nodded. "Well what she didn't tell you was that there were other Factions besides them, in particular there is the Youkai Faction were I came from, It's in Kyoto—"

"Wait, wait, the entire Youkai Faction resides just the city of Kyoto?" Shirou interrupted.

Ren sighed. "Not all Factions are all ridiculously big like the Trinity Factions, the Youkai Faction is closer to the normal."

"Ah," Shirou nodded. "Continue."

"Anyways," Ren continued. "While there, Youkai pretend they're Human and live among the crowd, however my Father a wolf-Yokai fell for my Mother a Human, and thus I came along, a half-breed."

Shirou was intrigued by all this. "And where are your parents now?"

Ren then looked down and answered with an upset sigh.

"They're dead. The Youkai Faction may not be at war, but it's still a dangerous world."

Shirou was shocked and inwardly smacked himself. "Oh dude, sorry I just—"

"It's alright." Ren looked up with a smile. "It was just a question."

Ren then shook off his sad face and continued.

"Moving on, The Youkai Faction has strict rules, one of them is a Youkai can't leave Kyoto without permission from the top brass, my parents did for a while, with me with them, but after… What happened to them." Ren hesitated with that last part. "I could've gone back to Kyoto, but I knew I couldn't leave again if I did, and the outside world was more fun so I stayed."

After hearing his explanation, Shirou had one more question.

"There's still one thing I want to know." Shirou then looked at him seriously. "Are you still my friend?"

Ren looked at him equally serious, but then smiled and looked up to the sky.

"Do you know why I first approached you? It was because I could sense something about you, something that made you different from everyone else here, even though you were Human."

 _"Is he talking about the Sacred Gear?"_ Shirou thought.

"But even so I still didn't know how to approach you, I was curious and watched from a distance, I always wanted to say something but didn't know what, and when I began you ignored me."

Ren then turned to face Shirou.

"But then before long, we started to talk and hang-out, and realized how much fun it was to be around you, you're my best friend. All that time was as real as possible for me."

Shirou felt a both relieved and upset, relief that Ren was still the Ren he knew, and upset that he doubted him like that, though he hid it well by showing no reaction on his face.

"Thanks Ren." Shirou smiled, "You're my best friend too. and don't worry, I won't tell Rias or anyone else about you."

Ren nodded. "You can tell Mika, I know you don't like hiding things from her."

"Yeah alright, her but no one else, I swear it." Shirou assured him.

"Thanks, I believe you. And don't worry, I'll tell Aika your version of what happened."

"Thanks."

It ended with them both shaking hands on it.

* * *

 _Flashback End_

Shirou was in some way relieved that Ren wasn't full Human, because now he didn't have to spend time trying to think of lies he would believe to hide that fact that he was a Devil. This also meant he had someone he could talk to about the Supernatural, he could talk to the members of the Occult Research Club, but he didn't think of them as anything but classmates or work partners, so that wasn't going to work.

"Uwaaah!"

He blinked at the sound of a scream and a dull thud behind him.

"What in the…?" Turning around to see, Shirou's eyes were then met with the surprising but not unwelcomed ass shot complemented by a pair of pure white panties. "Huh... you definitely don't see that every day." He said with an unusually stoic tone. He kept his eyes on the girl, both wondering how long she was going to stay like that and how she possibly tripped over nothing. When she started to recover from her fall, Shirou quickly turned his head back, having got his answer. "Well… She's lucky the wrong person didn't see her, like any other guy in town. Ahahahah." Shirou silently laughed at what he perceived to be his own joke.

With that out of the way, he went back to minding his own business, completely forgetting about what's behind him.

"Um… Excuse me?"

Which was hard when she was right next to him.

Shirou's ears perked up, causing him to turn his head to face the girl again. Surprisingly enough though she was already only a few inches away from him, her face being right in front of his own.

"What?" Shirou asked, wondering what this girl could want with him, now that he got a good look at her face he noticed she was foreign. This explained why he didn't recognize her but begged the question as to what a foreign girl wanted with him.

"Do you think I could have that back?" The girl said pointing at the seat next to Shirou.

"Have, wha?" Shirou said looking down to where she was pointing and saw what she was talking about.

Laying caught on the bench next to him was a white veil.

He could only assume this fell off her head when she tripped and landed here.

Meanwhile, the girl blinked, as if she realized something. "Oh! Sorry. I mean…" She frowned for a moment as if she was thinking. "… _Could I_ …H _ave that back please?_ " Her words were awkward, like an Elementary School kid reading a script for a school play.

She had changed languages.

Rias had told Shirou that Devils had the gift of tongues, allowing a person of any language to understand them. In short a universal translator.

The girl had been speaking in another language before and probably assumed Shirou couldn't understand what she was saying. Makes sense since she not from around here. In light of this.

"You don't need to change languages, I understood you the first time." Shirou stated with half-lidded eyes.

"Oh!" The girl was surprised, probably on account that this was most likely the first person she met today who knew what she was saying.

Shirou then picked up her veil and placed it on her head.

"Next time try not to trip would ya." Shirou berated.

She adjusted her veil, and smiled brightly at Shirou, not seeming to mind his words at all. "Thank you very much!"

As he got a good look at her, he saw her in detail, she is a pretty young girl with long blonde hair so silky and shiny that it reflected in the sunlight like gold, her hair actually seemed to sparkle. Her eyes were a bright shade of green that shined just as bright, they were like jade emeralds. Her hair flows all the way down to her back, with split bangs over her forehead and a single strand sticking out from the top, sloping backwards. Even just her smile seemed like an object of pure beauty. Her womanly figure wasn't something to be ignored either. She wasn't anywhere near the level of curves that Rias and Akeno possessed, but still not bad for a girl her age. She was better than Koneko but that didn't seem hard since Koneko was a loli that already seemed unusually short for her age. Her attire consists of a dark teal nun outfit with light blue accents, her white veil that is now over her head with light blue accents, a brown satchel slung on her right hip where she holds a Bible, and brown boots with black straps in an X-shaped pattern. She also wore a silver cross necklace around her neck.

"Well then, I best be—" Shirou got up, ready to leave.

"Wait!" The girl grabbed his sleeve, stopping him from leaving. Although Shirou could've easily broken out of her grip if he wanted to, he decided to wait and see what this was all about. The girl then nervously let go of his sleeve. "I'm sorry… I-I was just wondering if, if it wasn't to much trouble then, maybe you could help me with some directions?"

"What? Just use the GPS on your phone." Shirou suggested.

"G..P..S?" The girl responded confused with her head slightly tilted, it was as if she'd never heard the term before.

Shirou just blinked, before letting his head drop and let out a sigh. "Sure, why not?" He whispered to himself before raising his head.

"Where're you looking for?"

The girl's expression brightened significantly, a relieved smile appeared on her face. "Oh thank you very much! I-I was hoping you could give me directions on where I could find this towns church."

"The old church?" Shirou asked now even more confused. Shirou knew of the church she was talking about. He used to visit it often when he was a kid. However, he was positive that the church has been abandon for years now, and all the inhabitants had long since moved out. It made no sense at all for someone to go there, but it's what she was looking for so. "Just follow this street, take a right by the street sign, and then walk downhill you can't miss it."

"Um…" The girl hesitated, nervously twiddling her fingers. "…Okay, thank you." She immediately turned and started walking away.

Shirou watched her leave and had a deadpan look on his face. "…You're going the wrong way y'know!"

"O-Oh! Right of course!" The girl agreed as if she knew that all along. She turned and started walking in the opposite direction. She hadn't even taken a few steps before turning back. "What were those directions again?"

Shirou considered something before answering her. "First tell me something. Do you which way is left and which way is right?"

After hearing Shirou question, the girl stopped and thought long and hard as If she was asked to explain string theory.

Shirou watching her struggle to answer just face-palmed.

* * *

"Thank you for showing me the way."

"Yeah, well it was either this or continue with some poor impression of an old-timey, comedy skit." Shirou said tired and annoyed.

"I'm sorry." The girl apologized, upset that she was troubling him.

"I don't blame you." His words caused her to look at him surprised. "I blame whoever was stupid enough to let a girl who doesn't even know what GPS means travel alone."

Once again, despite not wanting to, he ended up playing the reluctant escort to a beautiful teenage girl.

Hopefully, this doesn't end in another deathmatch. Even though he had nothing to do, he didn't want to do this.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Shirou asked, even though he knew the answer. "Next time you travel to some foreign country, buy yourself a map would ya. I didn't have to be here you know."

The girl smiled apologetically again. "I'm really sorry about this, I didn't really think I'd have this much trouble getting to where I was going." The girl said honestly, clearly she didn't realize how naïve she was. "I was sent here by the choice of someone else, so you see I didn't have the time to make myself prepared for this."

"That makes way too much sense." Shirou immediately responded. After taking notice to her nun uniform, he felt some dread the closer her sliver cross got near him. "So you're looking for the church 'cause you're going to be a nun there?"

"That's right." The girl agreed cheerfully. "It surely must have been a blessing from God for us to have met each other."

"Hmph… God huh, I doubt it." Shirou said with skepticism.

The girl seemed surprised by that. "Is there something with what I said?"

"No, that's not it."

That honestly wasn't it. Although his feeling on the matter was ironic with him thinking like that even before he became a Devil. "So you just left your hometown without a word? Sounds like a hassle."

"Not at all." The girl disagreed smiling. "It makes me happy just to serve the Lord in any way I can."

"I don't know, really feels like the kind of thing you shouldn't just be okay with."

"It does?"

"I'm pretty sure I already know the answer but, you don't get out much do you?"

The girl shook her head. "I'm afraid not, I've never been away from the church until now."

"It was a rhetorical question."

Once again she looked confused.

"Right… Of course you don't know what that means either." Shirou was starting to wonder why he even bothered at this point.

Before they could talk any further at that point—

"Uwaaaaaah!"

The sound of a young boy's cries filled the air.

"Are you alright Yoshi-kun?" The boy's Mother tried to soothe the crying child.

"Strange, I thought it was a school day, what's a kid like that doing-Hey, where are you going?" Shirou noticed the moment he looked away, the girl was already on her way to the child, she knelt down next to him and took a look at his knee which was scrapped in the park. "What is she doing now?"

He asked himself before giving in to his own curiosity and following after her. A part of him wondered what she even planned on doing, even though she seemed like she believed she could help, he didn't think she had the basic knowledge for first aid considering how clumsy she's been so far.

The girl then patted the child on the head. "Are you okay? Boys shouldn't cry with a minor injury like this." She said in a soothing voice. "You'll be just fine."

It was then that the girl places her palm where the child has injured himself and before I know, something happened.

A green light orb appears from the girl's palm and is flashing onto the child's knee. The child's injury starts to disappear until there was nothing left. The broken skin even repaired itself.

"Woah-Augh!" Shirou at first was paying attention to the strange display of healing powers but then grasped his left hand recoiling from some strange feeling, not unlike a heartbeat. He then turned his eyes back to the nun, watching as the green light disappeared as did the "pulse" he felt.

"Here, your wounds are healed. The pain should be gone now." The Sister pats the boy's head again.

Shirou then looked from the girl to the child's mother. He raised a brow to her expression, there was shock, but…

"Let's go Yoshi-kun…"The boy's mother then grabs the boy's hand so they can leave quickly.

"But, mom, she—"

"I said let's go!" The woman eyed the nun with a look of discontent and fear. "You shouldn't talk to strange people."

Shirou heard her, the fact that she wasn't in the least bit grateful was something that irked him. He was about to go over there and give that woman a piece of his mind when—

"Thank you, Onee-chan!" The boy's words. Words of gratitude.

Shirou stopped after hearing those words, deciding that if at least the kid was grateful, then he could let this one go.

After that short detour, the two of them continued their way to the church.

They walked in silence, the girl not knowing what to say after showing her power. So Shirou broke the silence.

"The kid, he said thank you." Shirou informed her.

She smiled happily after he translated for her. "I'm glad."

"Yeah." Was all Shirou had left to say on the matter. "…So back there—"

"You're wondering about my power?" The girl guessed correctly.

"A little bit…" Shirou responded. "I mean, you just healed someone after shooting some green light from your hands, that would raise questions."

"Yes I know, it's the power to heal. It's a wonderful power that God gave me." She explains a bit sad, even though she's smiling.

"A Sacred Gear?" Shirou realized before he raised his left arm and summoned his gauntlet. "Well I say yours is better than mine, I'd rather have healing powers than this thing I know nothing about."

The girl's eyes widen at the sight of Shirou gauntlet. "That's a… You-You've been given a gift from God to!"

"Gift from God? You mean this thing?" Shirou gestured to his Sacred Gear unimpressed. "I seriously doubt I'd call it that, it doesn't do anything and so far I've done perfectly fine in life without it."

"Don't say that." The girl denied, smiling empathetically. "You've been granted a treasure by the Lord, I'm sure it will be a great help to you."

"You might think that, but not everyone is so quick to believe in your _Lord._ " Shirou muttered.

The nun flinched, staring shocked at Shirou. "Wait… You don't believe in God?"

Shirou shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly, no not really."

"But why wouldn't you?" The girl asked, unsure of how anyone could not believe in God. "He blessed you and so many other Humans with his gifts."

"The way I see it, there's no reason to believe." Shirou responded unfazed. "Let me ask you, do you seriously believe everyone Human in the world still believes?"

The girl was unprepared for that question and didn't know how to answer.

"I can tell from looking at you that you're extremely sheltered, that's probably why you hardly know a thing about the average person."

"Bu-but, the Lord gifted me with the power to heal others." The girl attempted to argue. "Isn't that a clear testament to the love he shares with us?"

"Love huh," Shirou snorted, he then turned to face her. "Don't get me wrong, if you or anyone else wants to keep believing then go on ahead, but I, on the other hand, gave all that up a long time ago."

"You abandon your faith?" The girl was now even more shocked. "Why?"

Shirou sighed. "Is it really that surprising to you? All you need to do is look around and you'll learn that the number of people who don't believe is higher than the ones that still do, and that number's only going to keep rising."

There was a long and quiet silence after that.

"On another note, we're here." Shirou gestured with his hand, causing the nun to look towards the old church building before them. It was in a significantly less decrepit state since he last saw it and the lights were on.

Shirou knew they were here. His body started to tremble. He wasn't exactly scared mind-you, it was more like his instincts were reacting to the unholy flesh that was now his body.

Personally, Shirou felt a bit tempted to enter the building.

The idea of fighting God and his Angels was fun In-of-Itself, but the possibility that "Yuuma" was in there for him to finish off was the main reason.

However, surprisingly enough, nothing even close to a fight came up.

Just a small sense of hostility in the air.

"Whatever." Shirou muttered with a sigh and turned to leave. "Well I've done my part, say ya, or maybe not."

"Please wait!" Shirou stopped and turned to face the girl who called out to him, feeling annoyed at this point.

"What could it possibly be this time?"

The girl was walking towards him nervously. "I-I wanted to thank you for helping me get here…" She said with a bow. "And though you don't believe it, I think that someday you'll be able to do something amazing with your Sacred Gear."

"You seriously believe that?" Shirou asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," The girl smiled brightly. "And I want you to know I think it's fine if you don't believe, just like how you think it's fine if I do after all free will is also a blessing."

Shirou was genuinely surprised by that statement, not expecting he'd ever hear something like that from someone from the church.

 _"No doubt, she's better than the usual."_ Shirou thought, while he slightly softens his gaze. "What's your name girl?"

"Huh, Oh um it's Asia, Asia Argento!" She answered nervously.

Shirou nodded. "The name's, Shirou Tsukiharu."

Asia's ever-bright smile returned. "It's very nice to meet you, Shirou-san."

"And I could think of worse things than meeting you, Asia." Shirou then turned to leave. Before he left he said one more thing. "Listen, it's fine if you want to believe, but don't just blindly follow someone else's flow, otherwise you'll end up looking back in regret."

And with that Shirou left. He wasn't sure why he told her that but somehow he felt it was something she needed to hear, her naivety would end up costing her if she didn't wise up before long.

* * *

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!"

"You know you're being bitchy than usual." Shirou taunted. "And not in a fun way."

"Do you realize what you almost did?" Rias asked, clearly not pleased.

"Yeah, I almost came in to say hi, and then you started yelling."

"I meant this morning! You literally almost started a second Great War!"

After Shirou returned to the Occult Research Club that night, he decides to mention to Rias that he had a run-in with a Sacred Gear-wielding nun, in hindsight if he knew how pissed Rias would get after hearing his breakdown of what happened, he'd probably decided to have kept it to himself.

Rias rubbed her temples, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Shirou, are you even aware of the gravity of this situation?"

Shirou sighed. "Yes Rias I'm aware of what _gravity_ is, I'm not an idiot."

.

.

.

Rias didn't know whether he was serious right now or if he was just screwing with her. "That's not what I meant! Look since you don't comprehend how serious this is, I'll explain it to you, Shirou: you must never, I repeat NEVER, go near the church again. Just taking one step inside the church is enough to spark problems between Angels and Devils."

"Yeah, probably should have mentioned this before, but I'm notoriously difficult to work with." Shirou said amused, scratching the back of his head. "Go figure."

"Yeah, go figure." Rias said not amused.

"Anyways, based on what you've already told me, both side already have problems, I'm pretty sure they don't need my help in making it worse." Shirou noted.

"I'll get to that later. But that's not what I was referring to." Rias said. "The Great War is still fresh on everyone's minds, we're still licking our wounds from our battles with the Angels and Fallen Angels. Even though by Human standards it was a long time ago, those who were involved still remember it clearly and tensions are very high as a result. Something as small as stepping into enemy soil could be enough to trigger a war on a global scale."

"It's that bad?"

"It's enough to make any Human war look like a children's fight, so be careful."

"Now consider this," Shirou spoke with his eyes narrowed. "If the war was that bad then, who's really at fault if another one starts, the one who just walked somewhere, or the pig-headed idiots who decide to start an entire war that could engulf the whole world just for something that small?"

Rias just listened to his words and was shocked, both at his lack of ability to understand the danger he put himself in this morning, and more importantly the fact that he had the audacity and disrespect to call the leaders of the Three Factions, pig-headed idiots. Using all the will power she could muster, she put that aside to finish this conversation.

"…Moving on, it was also dangerous for you personally." Rias continued. "The Angels were willing to let this infraction slid this time because you were just peacefully escorting their nun, but if you approach their territory again, they won't hesitate to destroy you."

Shirou scoffed not worried. "Please, Shirou-Sama isn't afraid of a few Angels, I'll just crush them and be back home for dinner."

"It won't be that easy!" Rias argued believing him to just be ignorant. "Angels and their subordinates possess a power that is poison to us Devils, the power of Light."

"You mean those spears that Yuuma used on me?"

"That's right, now that you're a Devil they are much more dangerous to you than before, a single stab could be fatal." Rias warned. "And more than that, they have subordinates who are exorcists, who can also use Light and holy elements, and they have great experience in fighting and in most cases, killing Devils. On top of that, some of them even possess Sacred Gears, which makes them all the more dangerous."

"Yeah well, that nun-girl wasn't one of them." Shirou argued nonchalantly. "Her Sacred Gear couldn't do anything but heal people and that's about it. Besides I doubt she could fight anyone, she has the common-sense of someone half her age, and the motor skills of someone even younger than that."

"She's that helpless?"

"I only saw her that one time and I'm already sure."

"Okay." Rias said trying to picture it and wondering if someone could be as incapable as he claimed. "Still though, that doesn't mean you shouldn't say away. If you are successfully exorcised there will be no coming back, there will be no third chance. You will completely and utterly cease to exist. You will become nothing and feel nothing, while a state of total annihilation. Do you understand?"

"Doesn't really surprise me." Shirou shrugged casually. "After all, before all this, that's basically what I believed happened after death anyways. It doesn't bother me at all at this point."

"…What?"

"Remember, I was a non-believer." Shirou reminded her. "I already believed there was nothing after death, I believe that men are just flesh that returns to the earth after death, so it doesn't bother me about not having a third chance since, until a few days ago I didn't even think there was a _Second_ Chance."

Rias blinked. "That's a rather morbid way to look at things, Shirou."

"Well even if that's how I feel, I still have no intention of dying anytime soon." Shirou admitted. "I still have too many things I want to get done first, so while I don't fear death, I can't afford to die."

Rias was a little surprised by the determination behind those words.

"While I'm glad you at least have the right mindset on that, I probably shouldn't ask what those things are."

"Yeah well, see to it that you don't."

Before the conversation could go any further, the door to the club room opened, revealing the raven-haired, big busted Vice-Chief, Akeno Himejima.

"Akeno, did something happen?"

Akeno's expression changes after Rias asks her.

Akeno nodded. "We received an order for a hunt from the Arch Duke."

"The Arch Duke?" Rias asked.

"A hunt?" Shirou asked.

"It's urgent Chief." Akeno continued. "A Stray-Devil has been causing trouble nearby."

Rias's expression became serious. Shirou felt like he was being kept in the dark about something important.

"Hey, mind explaining for those of us who haven't been here before." Shirou requested.

Rias turned to Shirou, a glassy smile on her face. "Come Shirou, we'll show you how Devils fight."

* * *

BANG

The front doors were blown off from their hinges by two solid punches.

"…Chief… The smell of blood." Koneko said while covering her nose.

The rest of the Occult Research Club stood a short distance behind her, all of them looked unsurprised at the display of strength as if it was nothing they hadn't already seen from her. Shirou however didn't even know how to react. "What the? How the unholy fuck did she do that?"

Rias simply smiled as if he asked something funny. "Oh don't worry, you'll find out."

"Well not like it matters, I could've done that too if I wanted." Shirou scoffed while looking away.

Rias still smiling walked inside, "Yes, I'm sure you could."

The rest of the ORC followed with Shirou following after. "Hey! I heard that sarcasm in your voice and I don't appreciate it."

After entering the building, he blinked when he got a good glimpse of the practically ROTTING inside of the house whose door had just been blown down by a loli just a moment ago. He raised his head, his lips curling in disgust as an unpleasant, unwelcome sent entered his sense of smell and he did not enjoy it. "Ah Geez, smells worse than Mika's room after a week of binge-watching anime box sets."

"…It's the smell of death and decay." Koneko answered in her usual stoic tone.

Shirou stared blankly. "You say that as if I'm supposed to know what that means, but I'm still lost as to what's going on."

"What you're smelling is the rotten remains of the Stray Devil's victims." Rias answered hoping to be more helpful.

"Yeah, that's the part I'm not clear on." Shirou responded still feeling out of the loop. "Why are we here and what's this Stray Devil thing you guys keep talking about?"

Rias clicked her tongue. "Weren't you listening at all to when I was explaining things earlier?"

Shirou gave her a sarcastic smile. "Oh sure Rias I'd heard everything, first you said: ( _Come Shirou, we'll show you how Devils fight.)_ Then when I asked what you meant you said: ( _Wait till the others get here.)_ And finally, you said: _(There's no time, I_ _'ll explain on the way.)_ What a great explanation, it really cleared things up."

Rias blinked, she then just stood there staring. "…Okay fine, this one's on me."

Shirou nodded. "And you're the bigger person for admitting it."

Rias then decide to now explain in detail. "A Stray Devil is a Devil servant that broke off their leash and ran from their master." She then leads the group further inside, Shirou followed with a look that said he was now listening, believe this could be something that would be a pain if he didn't know this sooner rather then later.

"Yessss, go on." He said waiving his hand.

"It's exactly how it sounds." Kiba continued the explanation, walking beside Shirou. "Stray Devils are pure evil. they don't care about anything besides fulfilling their own selfish desires."

"You say that, but in a way aren't all Devils like that?" Shirou asked. "Devils are beings spawned from darkness and live in darkness, they all live by the Seven Deadly Sins, Lust, Sloth, Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, and Pride, these sins are what Devils live by and use to draw in human souls, right?"

Rias gave a small smile. "I'm actually impressed you knew all that." She said. "But this is different. Most Devils have certain lines even they wouldn't cross. Though it may not seem prevalent, we also have things we'd rather not do. Stray Devils, however, don't have any line they wouldn't cross. They want and want without limit until they reach a point where they betray or even, in same cases kill their master. Without their master to control their power, they begin to run wild."

"Doesn't really surprise me, in fact, I kinda expected something like this."

Rias stopped walking in the middle of the hall and turned around to face Shirou. "What did you say?"

"Don't give me that look, you know what I'm talking about, just think about it for a second. You turn people into demons from Hell, take them away from their world and everything they've ever known while not even caring if they had a life or responsibility left behind. And here's the kicker, you make them essentially into slaves and treat them as such, using them however you please, while giving them no rights or privileges and their voice will never be heard by anyone, not to mention if they say they can't take it anymore and refuse to bow down, you just kill them and get another one." Shirou listed down in a serious tone. "What's unexpected about wanting to be free? It's a natural want that every living creature has, but you snobs from the higher-class of society have had it your whole lives so you take it for granted." Rias turned to open her mouth to retort. "—And don't try to tell me you've never seen it happen before, in the world of nobility there's bound to be a fair number of Devils just like that, those that abuse others with their power because they believe they'll never face repercussions. So don't pretend that all Stray Devils are evil, while all nobles are good. Slaves will revolt, that's a fact prove throughout history."

For a moment Rias turned to say something but soon realized there was nothing she could say to deny his claim. And so she decided it's best to just do what they came for.

"This Stray Devil murdered her master, her comrades, several Devil civilians, and now feasts on anyone unfortunate enough to be lured into her lair."

Shirou stared passively in return, since Rias didn't deny his words he knew he kind of won that argument, but didn't dwell on it as it wasn't really that important to him.

"Her track record or her kill count isn't important, long story short we just have to beat her right?" Shirou asked. "Besides that, how strong are these things normally?"

"Not that strong, we hunt Devils like Visor regularly." Akeno filled in.

"Who's Visor?"

"That's the name of the Stray that's in here." Kiba informed.

"Okay, so you know her, that's kinda awkward in some cases."

CRASH!

Shirou and the rest of the ORC looked up to see where that sound had come from.

"It's coming, prepare yourselves." Rias instructed.

Everyone got into a fight stance, while Shirou just had his guard up.

"I can smell something disgusting. But I can also smell something delicious~ Is it sweet~ Or is it sour~"

A strange low voice spoke from the shadow.

"Stray Devil Visor. We are here to eliminate you." Rias declared.

Shirou prepared himself, unlike the others this would be the first time he'd seen a Stray Devil, he had no way of knowing what he was about to see.

What he saw however wasn't what he was expecting.

Coming out from the shadows was the upper-half of a voluptuous woman who looked twenty-something, she had silky black hair and was completely topless.

"What? An oddly attractive Naked woman, that's the Stray Devil?"

"Don't let you guard down," Kiba warned. "It's dangerous."

Shirou shrugged. "I don't know, I mean it sounded a lot worse when you guys described it."

"Stray Devil Visor!" Rias yelled. "You betrayed your master and ran away to fulfil the lustful wants and desires that consumed you. Your sins are worthy of a thousand Hells. In the name of the Marquis Gremory, begone or meet your death!"

"Ah, Rias." Shirou spoke getting her attention. "I see two problems with that ultimatum, first you said: begone or meet your death. She can't _begone_ since we came here specifically to kill her."

"No, it's just a declaration to show seriousness." Rias responded taking her attention off Visor. "I'd never actually let her go."

"Yeah, here's the other thing. It's the whole _a thousand Hells_ thing, isn't that a bit much, I mean her sins can't possibly be worth that much."

"No, that's just something I say before a battle."

"Oh, so it's a signature line, well then I feel like I must tell you." Shirou sighed before saying It. "It's a little cheesy."

"What?"

"Sorry, it just sounds like you're trying too hard, that comes off as fake."

"Okay, that is just not true." Rias denied.

"Actually…" Akeno entered the conversation. "Since someone finally said it, I think I should add, I kind of feel the same way."

Now Rias was really surprised. "Et Tu Akeno?"

"Sorry Chief, but you can't deny it seems a bit much." Akeno gave an apologetic smile.

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't want to upset you."

"Well good job with that, anyone else feel this way?" Rias asked looking at Kiba and Koneko.

They both hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly raised their hands.

Rias then just had her head down depressed and said to herself. "I thought it was good."

"If you're done with all that, I'd like to get started!" Visor said feeling annoyed that they seemed to be ignoring her.

"Yeah were done." Shirou responded.

"Good~" Visor then comes out from the shadows, the lower-half of her body was revealed to be a horrific abomination that went against the very laws of nature. She had a centaur-like appearance, with her front legs featuring humanoid hands with red claws, and her stomach featuring a cavity with teeth to devour her opponents followed with a snake for a tail.

"JESUS!" Shirou was disgusted. "Who the hell did you make a deal with to get like that? Was it the God Hand, I bet it was the God Hand."

"This is what happens to Stray Devils who can't control their power." Kiba noted.

"This! Cannot be normal!" Shirou argued.

Rias got back in the mood. "Let's begin." Rias then snaps her fingers. "Yuuto."

"Yes, Chief," Kiba replied, then vanished in a flash.

 _"Fast."_ Shirou thought as he followed Kiba's movements.

Kiba was moving at a fast pace, to the untrained eye it looked like he disappeared. He was rapidly circling around Visor.

"How's he doing that?" Shirou asked.

"What your witnessing is the trait of a Knight." Rias explained.

"Knight?" Shirou asked curiously.

"Tell me Shirou, are you familiar with the rules of Chess?" Rias asked.

"Yeah sure." Shirou shrugged. "Mika and I used to play it all the time when we were kids, though we played about a hundred times and I only won four of those and lost the rest."

"Do you remember how I resurrected you from death?"

"I recall."

"I did it using special devices called [Evil Pieces]," The ORC Chief explained. "Each one is based off a piece from Chess and each bestows a different ability upon servants."

"I see." Shirou said looking on in wonder. "And that's Kiba's ability?"

Back with the battle, Visor wrapped her upper-body hands around her breasts, magic circles forming and tightening around her nipples.

As if that weren't strange enough, beams of light shot from the monsters nipples, splashing across the walls and already ruined furniture in the room.

"Evasive manoeuvres!" The members of the Occult Research Club all took cover, Shirou acting fast moved out of the way, with Rias moving in the same direction, they dodged just in time to avoid a shot that melted a huge hole in the wall behind where they were standing.

"Okay, I was willing to let everything else slide, but THAT is just wrong!" Shirou noted.

"That's another example of a Stray's power going out-of-control." Rias clarified. "Without her master around to keep her powers in check, they can only grow more rampant."

"There is no way that's just from her out-of-control powers! That looks like something you'd find in a Hentai/Horror anime!"

"It could be worse," Rias said with a shrug. "Of all the Stray Devils out there, this is one of the more tame ones."

"Well, that's reassuring." Shirou said with sarcasm.

"Now then, Yuuto!"

"Yes!" Kiba then stopped running around her and then closed in on Visor.

"In this game, Yuuto is my Knight. His attribute is speed. And his ultimate weapon is his Sword." Rias explained.

Kiba unsheathed his Sword and Shirou saw him raise his Sword up, which made the blade reflect off the moonlight making it resemble a flash of light.

In that instant, Visor's monstrous lower arms were severed from her body, blood spewing forth from the stumps upon were they were once attached. A howl of pain erupted from the Stray.

 _"Not bad, he might be as fast as me."_ Shirou thought after witnessing his attack.

After that attack, Kiba returned to stand beside the group and Koneko stepped forward as if she had tagged in.

Visor unleashed a more beast-like roar as her features became more monstrous, her eyes were filled with madness, her teeth became as sharp as a piranha's and her ears become pointy, she had lost all resemblance of humanity she had. She stood on her hind legs, her chest on her lower body opening up, revealing two rows of massive sharp fangs. Even as the second mouth approached her, Koneko showed no signs of fear nor any sign of moving.

"Koneko is my Rook—" Rias began.

"Yeah I know, and her attribute is super strength right." Shirou interrupted.

"Yes, how did you—"

"You kinda ruined the chance to make it a surprised after having her blow down the doors." Shirou pointed out.

Visor's lower mouth closed hard around Koneko, the small girl vanishing inside the monstrous appendage.

"Okayyy." Shirou said unsure of her choice. "I get the super-strength is her power but was it really a good idea to just walk into her attack?"

"Trust me." Rias had a confident smile. "Koneko will be fine."

"That's not what I was getting at."

Before they could talk further, A sudden look of surprise appeared on Visor's face, then the expression of strain.

"Augh!"

That was when her lower mouth was forced open, Koneko appeared in the opening and holding the teeth apart with ease, relatively unharmed although her uniform was damaged in some places, leaving a medium-sized tear around her skirt, and her T-shirt was torn over the right side of her chest, revealing her pink bra.

"Koneko doesn't just have unparalleled strength but also unparalleled defence." Rias explained. "Something like that wouldn't even put a dent in her."

"…Catch you on the flip side."

A powerful strike completely shattered the lower mouths teeth and launched Visor through the air, landing on the ground.

 _"I don't know about "unparalleled" I'm pretty sure I'm strong enough to do that too. And that wasn't even a good pun."_ Shirou thought after witnessing Koneko's strength, he then caught movement out from the corner of his eye.

"Akeno." Rias said gesturing to the club's Vice Chief.

"Oh, is it my turn." The girl asked in a polite tone that was soon replaced with excitement. "How exciting~"

Shirou saw the object at the corner of his eye move again.

His instincts kicked in and he rushed in, pushing Rias out of the way as one of Visor's severed arms launched right at her.

"Damn it." He said through grit teeth as the beasts sharp nails stabbed into his arm.

"Shirou!" Rias stared in awed surprise as Shirou deflected the blow, and used his other arm to grab the beast's arm and slam it into the ground.

Shirou smirked. "You really thought I fall for a cheap trick like that?" He then raised his fist in the air. "Well think again!" Shirou fist crashed down onto the arm and hit it with a large amount of force, bending it at an unpleasant angle, and with and audible the limb then went numb.

Shirou looked at the arm uncaring.

"I'd be disappointed if I expected any kind of challenge from you."

Rias stared concerned. "Are you alright?"

"Oh yeah don't worry bout it." Shirou brushed off. He then examined his arms before revealing the torn fabric, revealing heavy bars of metal wrapped around his arm. "My training weights took most of the damage." He then noticed Rias's look of appreciation. "By the way you don't need to thank me or anything, I'd of done the same thing for _literally_ anyone else."

Rias smiled regardless. "Well I still appreciate it," She then turned back to Visor. "Akeno, finish her off, please."

Akeno nodded before turning her attention back to the Stray. "I've got news for you." Akeno said. "You're not the only one who likes to play rough here, so lets you and I have some fun~"

Electricity discharged from her hands, crackling between her fingers.

"Akeno is my Queen." Rias explained. "Her attributes are a perfect combination of all the other pieces. She simply unbeatable."

 _"I doubt that."_ Shirou thought off-handed. _"No one in this world is unbeatable… Someone like that only exists in_ _fantasy."_

"Tough girl," Akeno praised teasingly as the Stray growled, struggling to get back up. "Not ready to give up yet~? Goodie~ I get to play some more~!"

Akeno raised her hands, unleashing a powerful bolt of thunder at the Stray.

An almost blinding light engulfed her and Shirou could've sworn he saw Visor's skeleton, like they were in some kind of cartoon.

Shirou noticed something weird. Akeno's attack seemed like they could have killed Visor already, yet she was constantly stopping it and then starting it up again.

"Hold on, how come she hasn't finished her off yet?" He asked.

"Oh that's simple, she makes use of her demonic power," Rias explained. "And that's not all—"

"This violence," Akeno said, her breathing becoming heavier the more she tortured the Stray. "It's making me so hot~" She licked her lips, much like a predator would.

"She's _Really_ into S&M."

"Is this as good for you as it is for me~"

Akeno continued with the torture and Shirou was starting to feel uncomfortable just watching.

"Don't you think she's had enough?" Shirou asked, unnerved by all this.

"It's okay," Kiba noted. "We usually just let Akeno-san do her thing. It'll be over soon."

Shirou didn't like how casual they were all being about this. He then looked back to Akeno as bolt after bolt of thunder stuck Visor.

"Hahahahahaha~! More~!" Akeno squealed. "I want to hear you scream _more_ ~!"

At this point, Shirou was gritting his teeth, clenching his fists, and his whole body was trembling.

"Enough." He whispered as he began to approach.

"Shirou?" Rias said as she saw him acting unusual.

Shirou then narrowed his eyes, glaring dagger at the scene before him, he then spread his wings and jumped forward, launching himself through the air heading towards Visor.

"I SAID ENOUGH!" Shirou roared.

It gained the attention of every one of the ORC, including Akeno who stopped her attack to see Shirou soar past her. Shirou unleashed a fierce punch on Visor's forehead, knocking her unconscious as he intended and sending her flying into the wall. Shirou then landed on the floor not far from where she was standing.

Akeno moved back down to the floor to stand by the others and they all walked towards Shirou.

"Shirou?" Rias was the first to speak. "Why did you do that?"

Shirou turned to face her, with seriousness in his eyes. "Because I couldn't stand to watch that."

"What?"

"In a fight, I'm a lot of things, I'm violent, ruthless, brutal, merciless, cruel, unforgiving, cold-hearted, and especially destructive." Shirou listed. "I'm all those things, but the thing I would never do is torture someone, especially go out of my way to attack someone who couldn't even defend themselves anymore." Shirou looked away and gripped his fist. "That's something that always turns my stomach."

They were all surprised, not one of them expected him to be so affected by something like this.

Then Kiba asked what they all suspected.

"Shirou, were you once tortured?"

Shirou didn't even look at them, he just kept his head down.

"Don't ask." Was all he said.

Even though he didn't answer, for them that reaction was more or less a confirmation for them, they didn't show it because they didn't want to bring it up or make him feel like he was being pitied, but inwardly they all felt sympathy for him.

Rias believing things were getting too heavy decide to end their business here and approached the defeated Visor.

With a cold expression on her face, Rias stood before the fallen Stray Devil, Visor slowly regained consciousness but Rias could clearly recognize there was not a single ounce of fight that was left in her.

"Any last words before I put an end to you?"

The look on Visor was filled with pain as she coughed and looked up at Rias with an empty expression.

"…Kill me."

"So be it." Rias extended her hands. "Checkmate."

A gigantic mass of demonic power, black in colour with red highlights, shot from Rias's hands, completely engulfing the feral beast before her.

There weren't even ashes left behind.

When the energy had dissipated and the light vanished, it was over.

The feeling Shirou got from it felt a lot different from Akeno's attack though… If one were to be struck by that kind of attack, there would be no doubt that nothing would be left behind. A power meant to destroy everything and nothing else.

"So that's how Devils fight." Shirou spoke.

Rias nodded. "Correct, so what did you think about, your first experience on fighting Stray Devils?"

"What did I think?" Shirou stared with half-lidded eyes. He then held up two fingers. "I saw two problems with this fight."

Rias blinked. "Two?"

"First of all their was the thing with Koneko." Shirou gestured to the loli. "Let me ask, what made you think it was a good idea to just walk into the enemies mouth, you could've died."

"…I'm a Rook, her fangs couldn't hurt me." Koneko replied showing no emotion.

"That's not the problem, even if you're durable it's still smart the dodge an attack if you can, if you just walk into them you're just asking for it, tell me what you would have done if she could have shot acid from her mouth too?" Shirou gave an example. "Could your durability block that?"

Koneko blinked, not realizing why she hadn't considered that possibility, and thanking her good luck that it wasn't the case.

"And then there's you." Shirou then points to Rias.

"Me?" Rias wonders what she could have done wrong.

"What made you think this was a good time for that?"

"For what?" Rias clearly didn't get it.

"I mean the explaining during the fight, why'd you chose now of all times to explain [Evil Pieces]?" Shirou asked.

"I thought you would understand best with a demonstration." Rias reasoned.

"You put yourself in danger!" Shirou rebuked. "This was a battlefield if you let your guard down thinking your perfectly safe, you'd end up getting yourself killed!"

Rias just scoffed. "What are you talking about, me and my Peerage face Strays like this all the time, and I never had any problems."

"You were almost torn apart by her severed arm." Shirou pointed out.

Rias then paused, realizing she can't deny that.

"If I wasn't here that attack would have reached you." Shirou then approached her then placed his hand on her shoulder. "You are too used to everything going your way, and because of that you let yourself become careless, even if the fight is easy it's still a fight, take it seriously all the way until the end, or else you and everyone else will be in danger."

Rias processed his words and felt there was truth in what he was saying, she was surprised by the way he spoke with such fluidity as if he'd experienced many fights and learned from those situations allowing him to point out any flaws he sees in someone else's method of fighting. However there was one other thing that she noticed in his words that surprised her.

"Shirou… Are you concerned about us?" Rias asked.

Shirou then froze and noticed his choice of words and the fact that his hand was still on Rias's shoulder. He then quickly removed it and took a step back.

"Ah no I… I just." Shirou was trying to think of an excuse.

Rias just smiled. "Well never-mind then." She then turned to the rest of her servants. "Let's head back, everyone."

She and the others turned to leave, but there was a thought that came to Shirou's mind.

"Hey, Rias."

Rias turned her head back to face Shirou. "Yes Shirou."

"You forgot to tell me what piece I am."

"Oh, well you're my Pawn." Rias answered.

"A Pawn huh…? It has potential and not limited to one attribute like the others, sounds pretty good." Shirou felt pleased.

Rias didn't expect him to be happy with his position but was satisfied nonetheless. "You should rest up. Tomorrow, we'll be returning to normal club activities."

"Actually, I think I'm gonna get some training done," Shirou suggested. "I want to find out the limits of this new body, and seeing the fight got me in the mood."

"That might not be a good idea." Rias warned. "Your body is still adjusting to the Devil transformation. You might experience some sort of jetlag in regards to the new schedule. You should probably just get some rest."

"You're overreacting." Shirou brushed off. "What's the worst thing that could happen tomorrow that requires a full night of rest?"

Oh if he only knew.

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. To start things off, yes I decide to make Ren a Yokai because I wanted someone that could call a friend In any regard which includes the supernatural world. I chose Yokai because to me there the race with the most freedom and the best at hiding their presence. Besides Shirou considers Ren a friend that he could trust, and thus he'd feel like a hypocrite if all he ever did was lie to him, so I made it so he didn't have to.**

 **The meeting of Asia was an interesting encounter for both of them. And as you can see, even though Shirou give up his faith he doesn't mind if others still have theirs, what others believe in our their own business, that's the mindset he has. That way he was glad that Asia said she didn't mind that he was a non-believer rather than try to convert him like any other nun would.**

 **And as for his problem with torture. That is an issue he has that will be touched upon later in the story.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more then be sure to leave a review, if you liked the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	4. Walking Into A Trap And A Hard Fight

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. Get ready for another fight scene and some more of Shirou's brutality and progress in this Arc. Hope you enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Walking Into A Trap And A Hard Fight.**

* * *

It was evening, one day after the Occult Research Club hunted Visor. In the Tsukiharu residence.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Mika Tsukiharu shot upright on the couch that was her chair, her bed, and (In extreme circumstances) her toilet. She rubbed her eyes letting out a tired yawn.

The menu to the DVD she had been watching was her 12-hour binge-watch marathon that was displayed across the TV screen. Perhaps not the most effective use of her time, but it was certainly the most fulfilling.

She didn't know why she couldn't stop watching Magical Girl anime, but she couldn't.

She was still a little fuzzy-headed.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Mmmhmmmm…" Mika whined, laying her head on the armchair. "Its probably just a delivery guy… He'll probably just leave it at the door. I hope Brolo doesn't mind I used his credit card again…" Her eyes slowly slid shut.

BANG BANG **BANG** BANG

"…I'm sure it's fine."

{Mika, open this goddamn door right now!}

"MMMMMNNNNNNNNNNN!" Mika whined, covering her ears and rolling over.

{Mika, open up or else I'll break the door down, and break your CD's into pieces!}

Mika gasped, eyes widen. "Not my Madoka Magica soundtracks!"

{I will stomp on all of them and make you watch!}

"Alright, alright!" Mika cried in surrender. "I'm coming…!" She got up from her comfortable sitting position from the couch and sighed.

She then walked towards the door and after a few seconds she was there, the next step was unlocking the top and bottom locks.

When that was done, she swung the door open. "Welcome back, Bro—" Mika paused.

Shirou's face had a small cut on his right cheek and he had some rubble in his hair. His entire body had some small bruise that locked mildly bad, but not much worse then what's normal for him, his uniform was also messy like he was thrown through a wall. He was wearing his student T-shirt but he was without his blazer, and most noticeably there was an injury that looked similar to a bullet wound over his right bicep.

"Hey Mika… Ah look I can kind of explain this…" Shirou greeted awkwardly. "The, the thing is—"

"U-Um, Shirou-san." The owner of a shy voice peeked out from behind Shirou, being carried on his back was revealed to be the golden-haired nun, Asia Argento. "W-Who is this?" Asia started to feel nervous under Mika's intense gaze. "D-Did I do something wrong?"

She was as beautiful as always. Even though right now her hair was dirty and there was a bruise on her left cheek, plus there was one more undeniable fact. She was half-naked, using one hand to hold a shredded dress above her waist and the other hand was keeping Shirou's now-found student blazer closed around her bare chest.

Mika looked from Asia to Shirou, to Asia, to Shirou, to Asia, to Shirou.

"Either you were doing something Devil-related, or you had a kinky night of passion and brought her home to finish the job." Mika said after a second.

Shirou face-palmed. "The first one. Mika when this is over I've got to find out why the most sexually unlikely scenario is the first thing you come up with." Shirou gestured to Mika. "Asia, this is my little Sister, Mika. Mika, this is the Stray I picked up, Asia. Now let's get inside, after the day I've had I really need to sit down."

Mika stared. "I feel like there's some important dialogue missing… Who is she again?"

"H-Hello." Asia greeted again, nervously glancing between Mika and Shirou.

"Asia used to be a nun working for the Fallen Angels who tried to kill me and now I took her from them and brought her back here." Shirou said believing that explained everything. "…Don't tell anyone about this."

Mika blinked "…Nope, still lost."

Shirou sighed. "Look it's a really, really, REALLY, long story, I cannot stress enough how long this story is, so I explain inside—"

"I'm not going anywhere, and I like long stories." Mika said, crossing her arms with an expecting look. Leaning against the door frame, pinning her foot across the other side, blocking Shirou's path. "I want to know what happened," Mika then had a look of excitement. "Also does this mean Asia's going to be my new big Sister?!"

"Hmm well let me start by answering the second one." Shirou said, taking a deep breath. "No Fucking Way."

"Whhyyyyy!" Mika whined.

Shirou sighed. "Alright look, how we got to this point happened a little earlier today."

* * *

 _Earlier That Same Night._

"Why should I!"

"Because it's your job!"

"How is it my job?" Shirou asked, his eye twitching. "They asked for Koneko, so make her do it. I just got back from a summon, so it's not my concern."

Rias narrowed her eyes at her lazy Pawn laying down on the couch, his head resting on the arm with his arms crossed behind his head. He wanted to just lay there and laze the evening away after taking another summons from yet another weirdo. The last thing he wanted was doing potentially a second on the same night.

"Shirou, she can't do it because she's double booked. It's your job because you're the only one left that's free." Rias pointed out.

"That doesn't mean I want to." Shirou argued.

"You should want to." Rias said. "Ever since you became a Devil you've somehow made a pact with every summoner whose called you, against my better judgement I haven't asked how you've done so, but you should keep it up while you're on a roll."

"First off, even if that's true regardless of how many pacts I make, I personally don't want those freaks calling me again." Shirou replied. "Secondly, what possible merit could there be for me to take Koneko's work?"

"You'll be closer to becoming a High-Class Devil." Rias noted.

"Eh, I not really in that big a hurry." Shirou brushed off.

"You'll be paid extra this week."

Shirou then immediately stood up and had a look of enthusiasm. "Alright, you talked me into it."

Shirou then walked to the window and opened it, Rias wondered why. "Aren't you going to teleport?"

"I'll take the long way." Shirou responded before spreading his wings, he then flew off into the night sky.

Rias stared watching he go. "When did he learn how to fly so well?"

As he was almost out of sight, he closed the window. "He sure does like money though." Rias noted. "I guess his greed is almost as prevalent as his wrath…"

* * *

Shirou arrived at the house of the contractor.

Surprisingly enough the door was already opened.

Shirou blinked. "Weird… Who in their right mind would leave their door open?" Shirou asked, he then shrugged. "Then again I've already seen that no one who summons a Devil is even anything close to being normal."

Shirou approached the house, however as he got closer he felt a sudden chill run down his spine and his both instincts and danger senses were screaming at him to leave quickly. Shirou felt a similar feeling from the Church but this one was different. It was less massive but more potent.

"That can't be good." Shirou then weighed his options. "Okay, on one hand, I go in there to do a job I don't want and possibly have to fight another enemy from the Church who uses a power that's now my greatest weakness and could even vaporize me to the bone." Shirou then raised his other arm. "On the other hand, if I stay I could fight someone interesting and leaving would me I have to deal with more of Rias' bitching and nagging."

After thinking it over for a minute, Shirou made a decision.

"Ah what the hell, what's the worst that could happen?"

Shirou then entered the house. "Hellooooo?" Shirou called out. It was fairly quiet. "Is anybody here? If you're not then don't answer me!"

Only silence answered him. Now he was starting to feel something ominous in the air.

Shirou then looked down the dark hallway, squinting for any signs of movement. "If anybody IS here then I'm the Devil you ordered, and I'd like to point out that I charge extra by the hour."

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Shirou continued his invasion of the suspiciously empty house.

"Well that didn't work, and I wasn't even kidding." He then looked around, feeling his unease grow the further he entered. "Strange, what's that weird smell in the air?" He took a good whiff of the air as he approached a light at the end of the hall. "Hm. I guess it's coming from there." He then approached the light.

Just as he was about to go around the corner to enter the room where the smell was, he could've sworn he felt the presence of someone else in there. "Man, if this were a horror movie I'd be telling myself to get the hell out of here."

It was when he entered the living room that he found his answer out in the most horrific way possible.

Nailed to the wall across from Shirou was the body of a man… At least, Shirou _assumed_ that it was male.

In truth, it was actually hard to tell what gender it was since _Its entire skin was peeled off_ _._

There were organs and blood seeped out of the large dissected hole in the poor saps torso and their arms and legs were pinned to the wall by large nails, legs together, arms as far apart as possible. The whole thing resembled that of a crucifixion.

Written above their heads was a message in their own blood that Shirou get barely make out as " _Punishment for those who did bad deeds._ "

Shirou just stared at it with half-lidded eyes. "Now it feels like an old horror movie, with cliché and lazy deaths."

"WHAT! Okay No. No. No. NO!" An irritated voice interjected, a shorter boy with dull-white hair and red eyes appeared in front of Shirou. He was dressed in the garb of a priest and judging by the look on his face, he was not pleased. "First off, who the hell do you think you are calling my masterpiece "lazy and cliché" and second, WHY aren't you freaking out at the sight of it? that's _Literally_ my favourite part."

"Both excellent questions. First of all, I'm the summoned Devil, Shirou." Shirou pointed to himself. "And I'm not freaking out because honestly, I've seen worse, seriously I've watched every horror movie you can think of, from the classics to the modern and surprisingly enough, they're not as good as you'd think, really even some _anime_ do it better with all the horror and gore, at least compared to modern-day horror. And let me say this, ever seen Boku No Pico? Because that's really scary. This, this is just too standard and extremely generic that it's not even funny, I don't feel a thing from it."

"FUCK YOU!" The priest boy exploded. "Do you have any idea how hard I worked on that?"

Shirou shrugged. "And I appreciate the effort, but really what do you expect?"

"As I said before, freak out! That's the best and only reason I made that!"

"Yeah that's the other thing, it's overdone." Shirou pointed out, sounding bored. "I mean what were you even going for, a curved up corpse with a message written in his own blood? I mean it's boring."

The priest boy scoffed. "I was trying to go for the classical approach! I mean look at it, it's gruesome to last detail!"

"It has gore covered but behind that nothing." Shirou argued. "It's only scary if you've never seen the inside of a corpse before, but if you have then, really what's there to be scared of, people would just say _Eh seen that before_ and I have so, not really feeling it."

"But it's a real dead body!"

"Real or not it still basically looks like what I was expecting so the only difference is the detail." Shirou said. "Besides I don't know this guy, so why should I give a damn if he's a corpse, sure in another universe out-there there's probably some wimp who would scream and barf at the sight of this, but I'm not him."

"Do you even know why I killed him?" The priest boy asked.

"No, I'm a substitute for this job."

The priest boy got excited. "Well, then I'll tell yo—"

"Actually I'm not really _that_ interested in knowing." Shirou interrupted.

The priest boy almost face-fault, he then glared at Shirou. "Well too bad! I'm saying it anyway!"

"Alright, alright… proceed." Shirou lazily waived him.

"I am Freed Sellzen!" The now named Freed declared with a pose. "And I'm…" Freed then put his arms down. "NO forget it, the whole mood I set up is gone."

"You sure you don't want to try anyway?"

"No, now it just feels like work instead of fun."

"Well, could you at least explain what your doing here?"

Freed then smiled. "How about this, if you survive the first one minute, I'll tell you."

"Wait why would need to survi-OH SHIT!" Freed then reached into the pocket of his robe and held a Sword in one hand, and a gun in the other, he then fired his gun at Shirou.

Shirou hastily dodged the bullets of light but Freed wasn't done.

"Now it's fun again!" Shirou rolled out of the way as Freed lunged at him with his blade. His body reacted on its own, trying to get him away from Freed's blade anyway it could. Freed fired his gun again trying to blast a hole through Shirou, and he evaded it by hopping over and taking cover behind the couch.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Freed shot three more rounds, that ripped through the fabric of the couch, just barely missing Shirou.

"Oh come on, I'm finally starting to enjoy this, the game is dull if all you do is dodge!" Freed called out, Shirou could hear the click of his gun which meant he was preparing to fire again. "I got it all planned out, first I'll cut your limbs off one at a time, then blast a hole in your skull and put it on my wall."

"Okay now, you're starting to sound like a horror movie killer." Shirou pointed out as Freed's Sword of light ripped through the couch and cut it in half. "And I'm not gonna lie, It's actually better than before."

"Thanks, I try."

Shirou lunged across the room to distance himself from Freed, Freed give chase and was closing in on him but, at the moment Shirou turned and kicked Freed as hard as he could in the face, sending him sliding across the room and into the wall. Freed quickly got up with nothing more than a bruise.

"Grr, didn't see that one coming." Freed said irritated.

"Alright look, I think I'm due an explanation now." Shirou noted. "It's been a minute, and as you can see I survived, so cough up your end of the bargain explain what you're doing here."

"What? It hasn't been… Wait." Freed then counts the amount of time from then to now. "Huh, what do you know, it has."

"Ah yeah, so hurry up and tell me." Shirou said impatiently.

"Alright, a deals a deal." Freed then smirked. "You see, I belong to a certain organization that specializes in exterminating nasty little Devils like you~ You are creatures that taint the world and drag humans into the realm of sin~"

"Oh come on, drugs and prostitutes do that too and way more nowadays," Shirou pointed out. "I don't see you putting a bullet in the heads of every drug dealer and working girl you see."

"Well of course not, this is legal for me." Freed said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Anyways, you Devils are a twisted and disgusting race that I've made my mission to wipe out~"

"I'm twisted and disgusting?!" Shirou asked feeling insulted. "You literally just craved up some guys body and called it art!"

"Oh don't highroad me, he was paying tribute to Devils, so I had to kill him. I'm a priest, so I naturally have the moral high-ground."

"That's not how morality works." Shirou argued.

"It is in the Church my child~"

"I'm a non-believer."

"You see-Wait what?" Freed paused, raising an eyebrow. "You were an atheist?"

"Nooo, I'm a non-believer, there's a difference." Shirou corrected amused. "It means that I don't believe in religion which technically includes atheism."

"How does that work?" Freed asked, clearly not getting it.

"Well atheists believe that everything exists from science and are trying to prove it, the problem is they act like they're smarter than everyone who believes in religion when they don't, and most of them go out of their way to be a dick about, I don't feel like doing that." Shirou explained. "I don't believe in God mind-you, but I won't fault others for doing so, that's their business."

"Huh didn't know that's how it worked." Freed scratched his chin, before realizing what he was doing. "I mean wait! You don't believe in God?"

"As a matter of fact, I do not." Shirou replied.

"But you're a _literal_ Devil, a creature from the bible." Freed pointed out, seemingly more bemused by the situation he was in then annoyed. "I mean, fuck God sure, but I don't deny he's real."

"Well the way I see it, I just don't see any proof that he's real."

"You are a _literal_ Devil!"

"I decided only to believe in something or someone when I see them, for example I've seen Angels, though only Fallen ones, and I've seen Devils so I'll believe in them." Shirou reasoned. "But I haven't seen God, so I still don't believe, I mean tell me, have you ever seen him?"

"Of course not." Freed immediately answered.

"Then what proof do you have that he's real?"

"I have a Sword MADE of Holy Light!"

"And did you get that from God?" Shirou asked.

Freed then paused. "…No I… I got it from a… a Fallen Angel."

"And what does that tell you?"

Freed shrugged. "Okay, you've made your point." Before Shirou could react Freed went back on the offensive and speed blitzed him, tackling him against the adjacent wall. "Now for some stabbing~!" Freed raised his Sword.

"Like hell!" Shirou raised his arm. "Sacred Gear, go!" The red gauntlet he had summoned previously appeared around his forearm. Shirou raised it just in time to block Freed's blade of light and push it back, thus freeing himself from the wall. Freed tried stabbing him again and again, but Shirou kept raising his gauntlet to block each strike. _"Damn it, how the hell is this psycho so fast?"_ For something that looked like a toy, the Sacred Gear was surprisingly durable.

Maybe it was a defensive type Gear.

"Would you stop dodging and just die already!" Freed complained. "I've got other shit planned for tonight y'know!"

"Go to hell! As if anyone would just hold still and die just 'cause someone asked them." Shirou shot back. "And hate to break it to ya, but your "oh so busy schedule" isn't important enough to me to change my mind!"

Shirou then rushed in, Freed saw him get close and brought down his Sword for a final strike, however Shirou was waiting for that and used the Sacred Gear to block his strike and raised his arm, knocking Freed's blade upwards and Freed off balance. Seizing the opening he created, Shirou let's loose a fierce uppercut on Freed's neck, launching him across the room and making him hit then floor with a loud thud.

This time Freed got up much slower, and blood was leaking from his jaw. "Augh, you son of a bitch." Freed groaned, clutching his face. "How'd you even do that?"

"Well sir, I used a very effective method of fight called STRATEGY!" Shirou answered annoyed, as explaining something as simple as two plus two. "You'll find it's a lot more effective than randomly swinging your Sword around like a psychopath."

"Hmm, interesting theory, okay let's try it, how about instead of trying to use my Sword up close." Freed then smirked and raised his gun. "I stand at a safe distance, and blast you full of holes with my gun, how's that for a strategy?"

Shirou paused, realizing what he'd just done. "Umm, on second thought, strategy is overrated." Shirou tried to reason. "There's not much wrong with what you were doing before, you should stick to that."

"Normally I'd agree with you, but I always believe in trying new things. So let's try it."

Freed then fires rounds from his gun at Shirou in rapid succession. Shirou dashes around the room, doing whatever he can to dodge the bullets, whenever he felt he could see one of them coming but couldn't dodge it he'd use his Sacred Gear to deflect it. However, even that could only work for so long.

"Y'know you were right!" Freed said while still firing, having a great time. "This whole strategy thing really does work."

"Oh, I'm so glad I could help!" Shirou responded sarcastically while dodging.

"Well, you really did, and to show my appreciation I think I'll shooting you in the head!"

"You don't have to do that." Shirou said.

"I insist!"

Freed then concentrated his shooting at Shirou's head, planning to end this with a head shot. Shirou knew he couldn't keep this up, dodging his gun fire was extremely difficult for him in such a closed space and while he was being weighed down by his weights.

Shirou decided he had to go for broke if he wanted to survive this, and so when Freed opened fire again after taking a moment to aim, he heard the click of Freed's gun. He began his desperate charge and rushed towards Freed in a straight line, using his Sacred Gear to block or deflect the bullets fired at him. Unfortunately, one of them got past his notice and struck him in his right arm. "Augh!" Shirou felt intense pain from the light that successfully hit his flesh even through the fabric of his sleeve, however he fought through the pain a continued. Once he was right in front of Freed he reached out and grabbed his gun.

Once his hands were on the weapon, both of them were in a struggle to steal it from the grip of the other.

"Get your hands off my gun!" Freed yelled.

"No way hand it over!" Shirou yelled back.

"Let go!"

"You let go!"

Then finally Shirou snatched the gun out of Freed's hands, and before he could react Shirou quickly threw the gun into the fireplace. The gun was now unusable. Freed was shocked which was quickly replaced with anger.

"Hey, that thing wasn't cheap you know!"

"Oh yeah, I feel so bad for you." Shirou snorted. "Sadly I had to do that in favour of NOT DYING!"

"Oh yeah well, too bad because I'm going to have to change those plans!"

Freed then brought his Sword of light back out, and Shirou jumped back to gain a few feet of distance and raised his gauntlet.

"And I was really looking forward to finishing you with my gun."

"You've still got your Sword," Shirou noted. "What's the difference?"

"What's the difference? Have you ever even used a weapon before?" Freed asked.

"Nah, I mainly just use my fists," Shirou said raising his fists. "The only time I use weapons is when I take them from my fallen enemy, though I throw them away after the fight."

"Well, then you obviously wouldn't understand!" Freed said irritated. "There's a feeling of enjoyment that comes from choosing which weapon you use to make the kill. It's not the same with just one."

Shirou blinked. "…Cool, anyways weren't we fighting or…"

After being reminded of that fact the two of them got back into fighting positions.

"Let's end this." Freed said with narrowed eyes and venom in his tone.

"Sounds like a plan." Shirou said in the same tone and also narrowed eyes.

Before the two youths could continue however, they were interrupted.

"N-Noooooooo!"

There was a sharp, ear-splitting shriek that made both of them stop in their tracks, turning to face the blonde-haired nun who had entered the building.

She stood there, staring in shock and horror at the desecrated corpse hanging on the wall like some kind of decoration.

Freed turned to Shirou, smirking. "See?! Asia thought it was pretty horrific."

"Well, then Asia has never seen a dead body before!" Shirou argued back instantly, before thinking back to what he just said. "Wait… Asia? Isn't that the name of the girl who…?"

"Father Freed…?" Asia gasped, turning to the white-haired priest.

"Oh yeah, this is your first time seeing how we operate isn't it, Asia-tan?" Freed noted, clearly taking amusement in Asia's horrified expression. "Then look carefully, this is the fate of Humans sinful enough to get entranced by wicked Devils."

"Are you still saying that crap!" Shirou interjected, bringing their attention to him. "How can you call him sinful when you craved him up, and you think Devils are wicked? Well at least we don't get are sick kicks by skinning someone and hanging them up on the wall, think about that Mr psycho priest from hell!"

Asia's eyes widened when she turned to face him. "S-Shirou-san…?"

Shirou got a good look at her face. "So I was right, you're the girl from the other day." Shirou then realized the situation of their meeting. "Umm, this is kinda awkward, I-I really didn't expect to see you here… Or ever again, like at all."

"W-What are you doing here?"

"Good question Asia, I mean what are any of us doing here…? Wow, that's deep." Shirou spoke as if she was asking about something else.

"No, I think she meant, what are you doing in this house?" Freed corrected.

"Hmm, maybe or-or and I'm just throwing this out there, what if she meant, what am I doing fighting you?" Shirou suggested.

Freed blinked. "Huh, you know that is also a possibility."

Asia stared.

"Hang on, do you two know each other?" Freed asked, noticing the awkward atmosphere between the two of them.

"Well, I wouldn't go that far." Shirou said scratching his cheek. "We just randomly meet, in a situation where I gave her directions because she's as mentally capable as a child half her age, and possess even fewer motor-skills."

Asia wasn't sure but felt like she was just insulted.

"Huh." Freed said feeling bemused by the whole thing. "A Devil giving directions to a nun, that sounds like the pinch-line to a bad joke."

"A Devil?" Asia gasped. "That-That can't be true…! How… How could Shirou-san be a Devil?"

"Well it's actually pretty hard to explain, basically I fought some Fallen Angel which ended in me breaking both her arms and me with a hole through my gut." Shirou shrugged.

"Wait? You did that?" Freed asked surprised. "Oh my God, that was amazing! I still get a kick just from thinking about!" Freed said excitedly. "Do you have any idea how pissed she was, Ha classic!"

"Well thanks but, it just feels wrong when you like it." Shirou said uncomfortable, he then turned to Asia. "As for you, I would have told you I was a Devil if you just asked, besides I believed I was never going to see you again so I didn't think it mattered." Shirou reason.

"Shirou-Shirou-san… Is… Is this why you don't believe in God?"

Wah, oh No-Nooo-No," Shirou admitted, looking away. "That's an entirely different reason that stems from something unrelated, this." Shirou then gestured to himself. "This is recent."

"Shirou-san…"

"Now, now Asia-tan," Freed said in a mocking tone. "Don't go forgetting that relationships Humans and Devils are expressly forbidden by the Fallen Angels now~!"

Shirou tilted his head a bit. "Forbidden? Butttt, we can still text each other now and then right?"

Freed just stared.

"No! you can't _text each other_ , forbidden means forbidden, and I doubt she even KNOWS how to use a phone!" Freed yelled.

"I guess I believe that." Shirou muttered. He then got ready to fight again. "Fine then, let's end this once and for all!"

"That's right! No more interruptions!" Freed responded raising his Sword.

Unfortunately though, they were interrupted again. This time before they could begin, Asia ran up to Shirou and stood in front of him with her arms out in a defensive-like manner. Both Shirou and Freed stared not knowing what to make of her contradictory actions.

"What the hell?" Shirou muttered confused.

"You've got to be kidding me with this." Freed muttered annoyed.

Asia stood there determined to shield Shirou, despite the obvious fear in her eyes.

"What do you think you're doing? Move it!" Freed demanded, anger by her action in protecting a Devil. "Do you have any idea what you're even doing?"

Asia didn't move. "Please don't! I beg you for mercy, Father." Asia pleaded, her eyes watering.

"Huh?!" Freed tilted his head in confusion and annoyance. "Mercy to a Devil, do you even know what your saying or are you retarded?"

"…I do. Father Freed, I beg you. Forgive this person! Please let him go!" Despite the fact that she was as threatening as a house cat and she was up against a man trained to kill Devils without mercy, Asia showed no hesitation. "I can't stand it anymore…! Using that reason to lead people astray to kill both Humans and Devils… It's wrong!"

Even Shirou raised a brow and was inwardly impressed by the girl's gutsy declaration. _"Damn… She's braver than I thought."_ He then focused on the fact that she had completely captured Freed's attention, As in Freed's attention was no longer on him.

Freed's only weapon was now his Sword, if he waited for just the right time, he could knock it out of Freed's hand, and with Freed disarmed beating him would be easy.

Freed's anger began to overflow. "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!? Don't talk shit, bitch! You also learned that Devils are trash at the Church! Seriously, is there something wrong with your brain!?"

Freed now has an anguished expression.

"There are good people, even among Devils!"

"There aren't, idiooooooot!"

Asia shook her head. "T-That's what I thought until recently… But Shirou-san is a good person. That fact doesn't change even after I found out that he is a Devil! Killing someone is unforgivable! This kind of act! God won't allow such acts!"

"ENOUGH OF THIS BULLSHIT!" Freed roared as he raised his Sword.

The Sword came down.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!

Before Shirou or Asia could react, Freed slashed his Sword down on Asia. There was a tearing sound that Shirou had initially thought had been her flesh being severed by the blade.

Instead however, what was actually cut was the front of her dress that had been completely cut right down the middle, removing any form of protection to her modestly. Freed then grabbed her by the collar and pinned her to the wall.

"You're really fucking pissing me off with that shit!" Freed snapped holding her against the wall. "…The Fallen Angel girl told me very strongly that I can't kill you. But I'm getting a bit pissed. Since I can't kill you, then can I rape you or something? If I don't, I won't be able to heal my heart." Freed then increased his grip as if he was trying to see how much pressure her neck could take before it broke.

"P-Please don't hurt me!" Asia begged, earning a twisted laugh from Freed.

SMASH!

Freed felt an unbelievable amount of force smash into the side of his torso, he was then flung away from where he stood and knocked hard into a bookshelf, the shock caused several dozen books fell on top of his collapsed form. Freed feeling a great amount of pain, looked up to see Shirou standing where he was a moment ago, with his fist extended and Asia being held up by his other arm.

"So yeah, I gonna have to draw the line there and say _Absolutely not!_." Shirou said with anger.

"Bastard!" Freed cursed, getting up while holding his side. "Where the hell did that come from?"

"I was waiting for the right time to struck you when your guard was down and Asia provided the perfect distraction." Shirou explained. "Of course that wasn't how I planned it, but after your decision to rape her I said fuck the plan and just went on the attack," Shirou then sent Freed a death glare. "Those are the kind of things you should never say around me." Shirou then thought inwardly. _"Oh wait, I should've used that chance to knock away his Sword… Whoops."_

Asia's eyes widened as she looked up at Shirou with a glimmering look of hope and surprise. "S-Shirou-san?"

Shirou looked at her with a look of seriousness. "Don't get to close." He then set her down by the remains of the destroyed couch. "I'm ending this now."

"Awww… MY FACE!" Freed barked as he stood up from the pile of toppled books. He then brought up his Sword again, his fierce gaze containing more hatred than before. "I'm the one whose ending this! You can't escape my exorcism!"

"Technically this isn't an exorcism." Shirou pointed out. "You've only killed a Human and tried to rape a nun, so this is murder and rape but not exorcism."

Freed paused, then got angry. "Okay, you SUCK! You are sucking all the fun out of this! I'm the only one who sucks around here-Aaah that came out wrong." Freed said realizing what he just said.

Shirou shrugged. "I don't know, sounds right to me."

"That does it! I am going to set a world record by seeing how many pieces I can cut you into." Freed charged at Shirou.

"Go ahead and try if you think you're hard enough!" Shirou charged as well.

Freed swung his Sword at Shirou and Shirou jumped back to avoid the blade, Shirou moved in again and tried to go for a righthanded punch to the side of Freed's head, but Freed ducked to the side to dodge it, Freed then let loose a wild number of slashes aiming to cut anything in front of him, Shirou did everything he could the dodge the hasty Sword attacks but one thing Freed had going for him was speed, that plus the narrow space they were fighting in made it hard to evade his attacks. As they continued this cycle, Shirou could feel some of the blade's attacks graze him a few times, he couldn't keep this up. Shirou lunged to the right to dodge Freed's assault, Freed followed and aimed his next slash at his legs, Shirou waived out of the way but lost his balance and fell to the floor.

"Not good."

"I disagree!" Freed grinned like a madman.

Freed then took the opportunity to try and stab Shirou, Shirou without time to think, quickly rolled out of the way, Freed's Sword stabbed empty floor and Freed tried again, they then continued that pattern with Freed trying to stab Shirou, and Shirou continuously rolling away on the floor making Freed miss his mark. Shirou then saw they were approaching a wall, he saw that Freed hadn't noticed yet and hatched a plan. Now they were only a few steps from the wall, and once they were there Shirou swiftly got on all fours and kicked his leg out and swiped Freed's leg, causing Freed to lose his balance and trip forward, because of that he ran face-first right into the wall.

Shirou then stood up and landing beside Asia, and scratched his head. "Wow, I literally can't believe that work."

"Shirou-san?" Asia spoke getting his attention. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine for now, but in a closed environment like this, he has the advantage." Shirou said. "First chance you need to make a run for it, I'll cover you."

"Sorry to tell you." Freed said getting his face off the wall. "but _neither of you_ are getting out of here alive!"

Freed lunged forward once again, Shirou outstretched his arm and used his gauntlet to block Freed's blade.

 _"Damn it…!"_ Shirou barked in his own mind. _"I'm doing everything I can in this situation and still nothing! One of the only things keeping me alive right now is the Sacred Gear… The Sacred Gear, it's a weapon that I don't even know how to use. All I can do with it is block, is that it, is it some kind of_ _Shield?"_ Shirou thought as he was constantly blocking the blade of light. _"I don't need a shield right now! power… I NEED POWER!"_ Shirou roared in his own mind.

 **[BOOST!]**

Shirou blinked as an announcement of some sort emitted from his gauntlet, more-so because the green gem embedded on the back of his hand glowed almost simultaneously. At that moment while his arm and Freed's Sword were clashing, suddenly his power shot up and his punch overpowered Freed's blade, thus pushing him back.

 _"What just happened?"_

his body felt… Different.

He felt… Lighter? Stronger?

As if power was coursing through him.

He didn't have time to think about it though because Freed decided to try and strike him again. Shirou parried each blow with the back of his gauntlet. With his increase in speed and power, stopping Freed's attacks from getting through was much easier then it was a moment ago.

But unfortunately, just as quickly as the sudden burst of power came, it vanished entirely after Shirou struck Freed with his attack, leaving Shirou at the same level he was at only moments ago.

"HIYA!" Freed then tried to use his free hand to punch Shirou, but Shirou seeing the fist just before it made contact, threw a punch of his own, their fists clashed, and unfortunately for Freed, Shirou had the upper-hand when it came to strength and caused harsh damaged to Freed's hand.

CRACK!

"GAUGHH!" Freed screamed out holding his cracked hand. Shirou wasn't done there as he followed up with a strong kick to Freed's gut which knocked him away and surprising launched him once again into the bookshelf. With a precious few seconds to spare, Shirou tried to figure out where that power came from.

 _"Okay, the obvious conclusion is the Sacred Gear give me a power-up. But then why'd it go away after a few seconds?"_ Shirou thought inwardly. " _I feel like I could use it again, which could mean it gave me a small power boost for a short amount of time and then need the same amount of time for a cool down."_

Shirou was luckily he had been in so many fights over the years, because of that reason he had learned how to make swift observations and decision on what's the best move in a limited amount of time because in a fight where your life is in danger you have to be able to make detailed thoughts and idea on a near instinctive level of speed, as to make sure you don't waste precious seconds which is all the time you have in most cases.

The time it took Shirou to figure out that possibility was less than three seconds.

Proof being, immediately after that thought Freed emerged and went back on the attack. Shirou went back to parrying and blocking his attacks, while in his mind he was counting the seconds of how long till he could use his Sacred Gear again.

 **[BOOST!]**

That was the moment, Shirou's power had gone up again, Freed not knowing the different charged straight forward and prepared a thrusting attack with his Sword. Shirou used his new lightness to jump up and leap over both Freed's Sword and Freed himself, once he was behind Freed while still in mid-air he kicked out behind him and his kick struck Freed in the back of his head causing him to fall to the floor.

Shirou landed on the floor and his power-up faded once again, _"Okay, I'm sure of it now, when I power up it lasts for ten seconds, but after that, I need another ten seconds before I can do again, it's actually a pretty good power."_ Shirou thought satisfied now knowing his ability.

In the time it took for Freed to get up, Shirou was ready for another boost, he rushed in for an attack.

 **[BOOST!]**

But to his shock, this time Freed smirked, and slide out of the way just before the attack, Freed then appeared behind Shirou and brought his Sword down for an attack. Shirou quickly reacting, brought up his gauntlet and punched the Sword of light, with that clashed they pushed each other back and then Shirou power-up faded.

"I admit, I don't know how you keep randomly speeding up, but after seeing enough times my eyes can adjust to it~" Freed said in a mocking tone. "Guess you'll have to try something else~!"

Shirou clicked his tongue, annoyed that Freed figured it out so fast. _"Damn… guess hit and run tactics can only work for so long, I know I can beat him if we were fighting outside if I could just get past his speed. I could if I removed my weights, but he'd know what I'm doing and kill me before I could."_ Shirou tried to think of another option when a light bulb went off in his head and he remembered something Rias told him. _"That's it!"_

"Alright let's try this again~" Freed raised his Sword in the air.

"WAIT!" Shirou called out raising a hand.

As if by some unspoken "wait" law, Freed paused his Sword in the air, and had a confused expression on his face. "What?"

"Before we go any further," Shirou said. "Mind if a take a call first?"

"What? We're in the middle of a fight!" Freed said unable to believe he even suggested that.

"Exactly, a fight to the death." Shirou pointed out. "And if there's a chance I might die, I at least want to say goodbye to my best friend, we've been friends for a while, even before I was a Devil, and if I'm never going to see her again, then I want to at least get some things off my chest that I've been holding in for a while."

Freed stared. "Alright, you get two minutes." Freed said, at his core, he knew he was being played, but even if he was, what could his opponent do with a phone call, might as well let it happen and get back to the fight afterwards.

Shirou reached into his pocket and took out his cell-phone, typing in a few numbers. He then pressed the phone against his ear and waited for the call to pick up.

{…Hello?}

"Hey Rias, it's me Shirou." Shirou called.

{Shirou? Where are you? Did something happen?}

"Rias, listen, I'm kind of in a bit of a problem here, like I'm fighting for my life, 'cause of that thing you told me about before." Shirou explained trying to be discrete.

{What? Are you in danger? We're on our way!}

No don't." Shirou said greeting his teeth. "I just need you to do me a favour."

{A favour?! But you're in trouble!}

"That's why I called. Listen, remember that _thing_ you told me I could do?"

{Thing? What thing?}

Shirou's eye twitched. "You know, that promotion thing only I can do, I need your permission."

{Oh-OOOOHHH! right that thing, I give you permission to promote, stall until we get there—}

"Yeah, about that." Shirou responded. "Don't come."

{What? Why?}

"Because I won't be here by then, bye!" Shirou then hung up the phone before she could reply.

"Soooo?" Freed said, not being able to hear much of the conversation, because of Shirou's quiet tone. "Any last words before we end this?"

"Just two." Shirou confirmed, before smirking. "Promotion: Knight!"

"What?!" Freed gasped. It might have been his imagination, but for a moment it appeared as though Shirou's body had glowed crimson.

"This is the end!" Shirou roared, then with a burst of speed, he appeared right in front of Freed and hit him with a strong uppercut to his chin, leaving him stun, at that moment Shirou then let loose a barrage of fast punches all over Freed's unguarded body, causing large amounts of damage in rapid succession. Freed tried to slash him with his Sword, but Shirou dodge making the Sword leave a small cut to his cheek. Shirou then used his speed to appear behind Freed. Freed turned his head half-way before Shirou unleashed a fierce right hook to Freed's face, sending him back through the air.

Freed was sent flying, but before he could land, Shirou appeared above him in the air and slammed his legs into Freed's stomach knocking hard onto the floor, the force of the attack even caused him to bounce a bit back in the air, while he bounced at that moment Shirou appeared behind him and kicked him again, this time it knocked him into the wall. Freed was slammed with his back against the wall and before he could react, Shirou appeared in front of him again and smashed his fist hard into Freed's stomach, cracking the wall behind him and causing Freed to cough up some blood. Shirou then kicked Freed's hand that was holding his sword of light, and with an audio crack his hand was broken and he dropped the Sword. Shirou finished it by grabbing Freed by the forehead and pinning him to the wall with his grip.

Shirou thought about the change to his speed, he thought the promotion would only give him a small increase in speed, but this was much more then he expected. _"Fucking hell, this is amazing, I only meant have enough speed to get him outside, but now I've completely closed the gap, I think right now I'm as fast as I am without my weights on."_ Shirou's body felt completely weight-less it wasn't just an increase in speed that the promotion gave him. His body was now as light as air, allowing him to use his speed to it's fullest and his stamina had greatly increased allowing him to use his speed as long as he wanted. He felt like he could run around the world, and still not tire out.

"Sorry Freedy-boy but the only thing you had going for you was speed." Shirou said in a mocking tone. "And now without that advantage, I've literal got against the wall, in the palm of my hand."

Freed cough, finally understanding his situation.

"Well, I'm fucked."

"Right in the down-under." Shirou agreed.

He then let out a roar as he unleashed a barrage of punches with both his fists upon Freed without mercy. His punches were so fast this time, they were like a transparent blur and there was so much power behind them Freed almost felt as if his body was shattering, fortunately for him the wall shattered before he did, and Shirou continued his assault while punching Freed through a wall.

 _CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!_

And every other wall behind it.

Then once they were outside, Shirou hit Freed with one final punch, it was a strong body blow, that launches him in the air a few feet from the house and made him land hard on the ground, flat on his back.

"Aaauughh!" Freed groaned, never knowing pain like this, hoping beyond hope that it was over.

 **[BOOST!]**

Sadly though it wasn't, he looked up to see Shirou in the air. Shirou's power had been boosted and he was planning to end this with a final blow. Freed could see him coming down right above him with his legs bent, knowing what that meant, he cringed.

"Oh Fu-AUGH!"

CCCRRRRRAAAACCCKKK!

Shirou landed on Freed with both his kneecaps slamming into Freed's stomach area. Freed cough out even more blood, and you could hear the deafening sound of bones cracking, Shirou could even feel some of Freed's ribs break under the weight of his attack. Freed then fell back and his body was motionless showing he was unconscious and finally defeated.

Shirou stood up and let out a long sigh. "Ah man, that… Was an ordeal."

"Shirou-san!" Asia hurried as quickly as she could through the holes in the walls created by Shirou attacks, trying to avoid getting the remains of her dress caught in the splinters. "Are you alright?"

"Wha?" He turned to Asia with a passive expression. "Oh yeah, I'm fine, and good news I took care of this nut-job."

Shirou gestured to the fallen Freed. Asia approached nervously. "Is he alive?"

"Not sure… But I don't really care enough to find out." Shirou answered.

Shirou yawned and stretched out his arms. Though he was a little sore, it wasn't anything he couldn't walk off.

"All in all, it could have been much worse." Shirou said. "And that fight was pretty interesting, not to mention it opened the door to a few questions and some ideas I want to try out."

Shirou then remembered something and took out his cell-phone.

"Hey Rias."

{…Shirou, good you're still okay, the others and I will be there soon!}

"Yeah here's the thing," Shirou said with an awkward tone. "It's already over."

{What?}

"The fight, it's already over, I won, the guy's beaten."

{What?! But how?!} Rias asked in disbelieve.

"I'll explain later." Shirou was then done talking to her.

{Wait I—} Rias was cut off as the phone hung up.

"Well then, that takes care of that. Anyway, I should get out of here before any other, unforeseen problem shows up." He then turned to Asia. "So then, you coming?"

"Huh?"

"Well I can't just leave you here with Freed, and you yourself said you couldn't stand how the Fallen Angels did things anymore." Shirou noted. "So since you basically quit your job, why not came with me." Shirou extended his hand. "You'll have more freedom."

"Um…" Asia now better comprehending Shirou offer, reached out and took his hand. "Um… I-I'm very grateful, Shirou-san, thank you for saving me, and for everything else."

"Well, it's wasn't the worst thing I could have done. Besides you were pretty gutsy back there standing up to Freed." Shirou praised. "I didn't think you had it in ya, I was right you are better than the usual."

Asia not used to being praised, nor expecting it blushed and looked away. "Oh, I-I ah… Thank you."

"Now then." Shirou removed his blazer and handed it to Asia. "Put this on."

Asia stared at it with confusion, not knowing why he gave it to her. Shirou noticing her predicament remember her air-headedness and clarifies.

"Well you can't go around wearing a torn-up dress, so use this to cover yourself."

Asia then looks down and remember her current lack of modestly. After blushing more fiercely than before she quickly takes the blazer and wraps it around herself.

"Alright let's go." Shirou then began to walk away.

"O-Oh…R-Right…" Asia then followed him, though she was reluctant to go with someone who was almost a complete stranger to her, and even though he was a Devil, he had already proven himself ten times kinder and trustworthy the most of the people she currently worked with. Truthfully Asia felt it was much safer and would be much nicer to stay with Shirou right now, and something inside told her, things would work out.

And so, the unlikely duo of a Devil and a nun made their way to the Tsukiharu residence…

* * *

 _Present_

"…And that's basically how we got here."

CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.

Mika clapped her hands, staring in wonder at her older Brother. "I like how you started the story by the front door but ended it here at the dining room table."

Over the course of the story, Shirou had finally made Mika allow his and Asia's entrance into the house.

"And so now, I need to keep a 24/7 watch around the house to be prepared for if and when those Fallen assholes try and attack." Shirou adding in conclusion, leaning back into his chair. "I'm gonna be needing a lot of red bull for tonight, so if I seem tired, don't approach me because I might be on edge." He then looks to Asia. "Now for you."

"H-Huh?"

"Let's set some ground rules." Shirou said. "You can stay here for free obviously and you can use the guest room, but I want you to learn how to at least cook, or clean, or anything that can help out around the house while you're here."

"U…Ummm…"

"Okay, now get some sleep."

"Shirou-san?"

"Hmmm?" Shirou raised a brow at Asia, while she was shifting awkwardly in her seat. She looked like she wanted to say something. "What? got a question?"

Asia turned her gaze downward. "W-Why did you bring me here…?"

Shirou raised a brow. "Didn't I already answer that before?"

"W-Well, yes…but…" Asia mumbled nervously.

"I don't get why you're worried about that." Shirou said as he stood up. "It's not like you could have gone back anyways."

"I understand that, but." Asia mumbled, putting her hands on her lap. "But there was no reason for you to bring me with you. You risked the Fallen Angels hunting you down to bring me to safety and I don't know why… You saved me from Freed and I'm truly grateful for that, but I don't want you to have to put yourself in even more risk by harboring me."

Shirou just looked at her with a passive expression, he then looked away and let out a sigh.

"I know you think you're worried about me, but I think you're underestimating me." Shirou told her. "The reason I'm not worried about bringing you back here is because I don't fear the Fallen Angels, In fact, I believe I can beat them, and the reason I brought you here at all is because if I didn't they would have found you in an instant."

Asia was surprised, but then thought for a moment. She realized Shirou was right considering her lack of understanding of the outside world and the fact that her foreign features make her stand out anywhere in town, there's also the problem that she knows no one here and thus has nowhere to go. All those reasons made her realize, if Shirou hadn't taken her in, she'd probably be back with the Fallen Angels by now.

"Get it now?" Shirou asked. "That's why I decided I would save you from that mess, but if all I did was beat up that one guy and leave you to be taken back by the rest, then they'd just fix him back up and you'd be in the exact same situation as before, that's not saving you at all, that's just empty words while running away when it stops being easy, and a man always keeps his word."

"It's true." Mika chipped in, munching on a cookie. "He follows that quote religiously, sometimes it even puts him in danger, but luckily for you, it works out in this case."

Shirou shot her an annoyed look. "I can do without your comments." Then back to Asia. "Anyway, you can stay until this is over, now if you'll excuse me."

Shirou moved to stand up from his seat, but when he put pressure on his right arm, he felt extreme pain.

"Auuggghhh…Fuck…" Shirou groaned, clenching his arm. "Ah my arm, it doesn't feel right and..." Shirou then sniffs then air around him. "Hey, does anybody else smell smoke?"

"It's probably just your cigarettes Brobot." Mika said casually.

"No, it feels like it's coming from my arm."

"Oh relax Brogeta." Mika waived. "Your arm is not…" She paused, staring in surprise. "Oh crap, it actually IS smoking."

Sure enough, a trail of smoke was rising from out of the bleeding hole in Shirou's arm, the burning sensation he had endured previously was beginning to feel more intense.

"What is this…?" Shirou asked now feeling some dread.

"It's light poisoning!" Asia gasped immediately rushing to Shirou's side and checking the state of his arm. "You were poisoned when Father Freed shot your right arm, his gun used bullets of light!"

"Huh weird, you'd think I'd noticed that by now." Shirou responded, he then winced in pain as he rolled up his sleeve. "Alright, let's see the damag- OH HELL, seriously how did I not notice that!" Shirou took a look a the state of his biceps, needless to say...It wasn't a pleasant sight.

It wasn't something you could explain in detail, but it was burnt, smouldering, and severely cracked on the skin, it was as if his bicep had been hit by acid.

"That's so…. Cooooool!" Mika said with awed eyes.

"NO! Not cool, this is my arm!" Shirou snapped. "Or it used to be!" The section of flesh that was once his arm was utterly revolting! and it had a weird smell coming from it too.

If Shirou's pain threshold wasn't as strong as it is now, he may very well have been screaming his ears off by now.

"Please, hold still!" Asia commanded in a surprisingly forceful tone, extending her hands towards Shirou's arm. "This will only take a moment." She began to focus, and a green aura was emanating from her hands and covering his injury.

Sure enough, the pain began to subside. The bleeding ceased and the burnt flesh around his bicep slowly repaired itself. After what had been at most several seconds, his arm was good as new, in the exact same condition it had been before the battle with Freed, the only thing left behind was the torn fabric.

"Oh right, Sacred Gear." Shirou commented.

"It should be fine now." Asia said with a smile. "You only sustained minor injuries like this one in the battle, so the light poisoning wasn't major enough that I couldn't heal it." She then raised her hands again. "If you'd like, I could heal the rest of your injuries."

Mika stared at Shirou, clearly needing an explanation.

"She's got a Sacred Gear too." Shirou explained. "But her one heals people."

Mika eyed Asia with a new-found wonder. "Cool, now you've got a White Mage, which is a good thing since now you don't have to worry about almost killing yourself when fighting in bad conditions."

"What?! When have I ever done that?!" Shirou asked insulted.

"Don't make me have a flashback." Mika said with half-lidded eyes.

Shirou sighed. "Whatever, It's been a long day and I'm understandably not in the mood for an argument." Shirou looks to Asia. "Asia, go upstairs and find yourself something new to wear." Shirou then looked to Mika. "Mika, you've been up long enough, you go to bed."

Mika extended her hands, waving them, her intentions clear. "Carry me."

For a moment, it appeared to Asia as though Shirou would protest, only for him to just smile at her. "Okay then." He then walked around the dining room table and went over to his Sister, He then held on to her hands and lifted her up in his arms. "Let's go."

"Yaaaaaaaay," Mika cheered, wrapping her arms around Shirou as if she was hugging him, "Now take me to my room!"

From previous experience with Shirou's personality, Asia would have thought he'd be irritated or annoyed at being ordered around. Asia knew he was honorable when it came to helping those weaker than him and that he was capable of extending mercy, but most of the time he just seemed bitter about the world and she didn't know if that extended to his family.

That didn't happen.

Instead, it was a shocking sight.

-There was a warm smile on his face.

He was looking at where he was going so he wasn't facing his Sister, but Asia was sure Mika could see it, just like she could.

"Yes I know." Shirou said in a surprisingly gentle tone. "Whatever you want."

The warmth that he radiated was a sparkly difference from his previous behaviour. It wasn't overwhelming, but it was sudden.

As Shirou carried his Sister upstairs, Asia stood up from her seat and began to head upstairs as well, as she thought back to his smile, it made her smile to.

In her heart, she now had no doubt.

She was glad she came with him.

* * *

 **That's the chapter. And as you can see the fight with Freed was different to ones previously, Shirou is someone who is really talented when it comes to fighting, one could even call him a genius, and because of that, his strength increases at a fast rate the more fights he's in and the longer the fight goes on.**

 **In a sense, he's pretty similar in that regard to Garou from One Punch Man. For those of you who don't know Garou look it up so you can understand. Anyway, that's why he was able to wreck Freed so easily after promotion. See he surpassed Freed in power, strength, durability, and skill. The only things reed had over him was speed and environment, without those, he literally had Freed right where he wanted him, and once again demonstrated his brutal fighting style. See once he gained the speed advantage he kept attacking without giving him a chance to defend, he dealt huge damage repeatedly until his opponent was down.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more then leave a review, if you liked the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	5. Greater Conflicts And Frightening Power

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. And I hope your ready because this is a chapter I've been waiting for since the start. And be on the lookout if you can recognize what I'm referencing at the end of the chapter. Hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Greater Conflicts And Frightening Power.**

* * *

It was the morning after Shirou invited Asia to his house, after curb-stomping Freed. Right now Shirou was hoping for a quiet morning.

But unfortunately Shirou knew, sometimes there are few warnings before days can go from good to bad. Even fewer when they go from bad to worse.

"There you are! What happened last night!"

Shirou had no such warning this time, however.

From the look on her face, Shirou could pretty much guess he couldn't get Rias to leave without first giving an explanation.

The morning started out pretty peaceful. Shirou felt completely recovered from the fight from last night, with just a minor swore spot here and then, Asia had done as she was told and started cooking breakfast, though Mika was with her on the side to give her some much-needed instructions.

He considered going to school but then remembered that he had almost no care whatsoever about his education even before he became a Devil and that thought only increased after, thus he decided to give himself the day off, and keep to himself.

That plan, however, became much harder with this sudden visit.

Shirou groaned. "Okay, guess we're doing this now." He whispered to himself. "Good morning Rias, how nice of you to drop by, completely unannounced."

Rias' facial expression didn't change and still looked like she wanted answers. She pulled out her cellphone from her pocket, revealing several unanswered calls directed to him. "I have tried to call you several times last night!" She said loudly. "First you call me, telling me you're in trouble and need to promote, and then when we were ready to come to your aid, you call again saying you already took care of it yourself! after that nothing!"

Shirou shrugged. "I told you, I didn't want you to come."

"But you didn't explain what happened at all!" Rias snapped. "Why did you need to promote? What happened at the client's house? And who was it you said you defeated?"

"Here's a question, why did you call me all night if you were just going to come here anyway?" Shirou retorted. "And why do you want to know so bad?"

"Because you said you'd explain later." Rias reminded.

"Oohhhhh! shit that's right."

Rias then looked really impatient at this point.

"Tell me what happened!" Rias demanded.

"Fine," Shirou sighed. "If nothing else, I'm a man of my word."

"Well?" Rias waited.

"Remember those Exorcist guys you told me about?" Rias nodded at his question. "Well one of them was at the house and killed the client so I beat him."

"A Stray Exorcist was there?!" Rias said shocked.

"Wait, Stray? What's that all about?" Shirou asked not familiar with the term.

"There are two types of Exorcists." Shirou listened to Rias's explanation. "The first are the Exorcists who receive the blessing from God to perform exorcism in the name of justice. This group of Exorcist borrows its power from God and Angels to eliminate Devils. And there is another one are Stray Exorcists." Shirou stood there crossing his arms, processing this new information. "Exorcism is a Holy ceremony that is performed in the name of God. But sometimes, there are Exorcists who start to enjoy the act of killing Devils. They are beings who have found killing Devils as a joy and their purpose of life. So they get kicked out from the Church without exception. Or they get erased for being found guilty. But there are those who survive. What do you think happens to those Exorcists? It's simple. They go to the Fallen Angels."

 _"Freed did say he worked for the Fallen Angels."_ Shirou thought.

"The person you thought was likely a Stray Exorcist." Rias concluded.

Shirou then stared at her with half-lidded eyes. "You know Rias, that seems like the kind of information you should tell someone _Before_ they happen to randomly encounter one!"

Shirou was understandably upset that Rias waited until now to mention all this.

"I know and I'm sorry about that, now tell me the rest."

Shirou now looked nervous. "T-The rest?"

"Yes, as in what else happened?" Rias asked.

Shirou started to avert his gaze. "I don't know what you're talking about, I already told you everything."

"Considering the fact that, given your inexperience, you still managed to defeat a Stray Exorcist, and the fact that you look perfectly healthy despite facing an opponent that uses light, just a few hours ago, I'd guess you left out some details." Rias accused.

"Look just, not now alright!" Shirou said feeling impatient. "Just come back at a different time." He made a push to close the door but Rias blocked it from closing.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Rias struggled to keep the door open. She had far more raw magic power then Shirou, but against Shirou raw superhuman-like strength, she was outclassed. "What is going on with you?…." Her eyes widened slightly before narrowing. "Is there someone in there with you?"

"No!" Shirou answered immediately, unfortunately that made it less believable.

"Is it an enemy?" Rias asked, not believing him.

"Ahhhh, No?" Shirou said sounding unsure about the answer to that question himself, while he knew Asia was certainly no enemy to him, he couldn't really call her a friend either.

"Then open the door." Rias demanded.

"I said, No!"

"Shirou Tsukiharu! As the master of your soul, I use my authority to order to open this door!"

"Well, I use _my_ authority as the master of _this house_ and say, GET LOST!" Shirou retorted.

"Not until you tell me what's going on!" Rias argued.

"Shirou-san, is that a friend of yours?"

Both Shirou and Rias paused at the sound of an innocent and pure voice that called them from the backroom.

It took a few moments for Rias to speak as if she was trying to figure out what the correct response would be.

"Shirou?"

"Yeah?"

"Who was that?"

Shirou averted his eyes. "It was… Your imagination, you're probably just hearing things."

"No, that's impossible." Mika disagreed, popping out from behind Shirou and joining in on the conversation. "Because I heard it too and let's face it, my imagination is way different from yours." Mika looked up at Rias. "Hi, Rias."

"Hello, Mika." Rias greeted without looking at her, more focused on what's going on.

Shirou shot his little Sister a piercing gaze telling her to stop talking, so much so that it caused Mika to retreat back into the house.

"Now answer honestly, _Who_ was that?" Rias repeated.

"Nobody." Shirou attempted.

"It couldn't have been nobody since I heard them." Rias said irritated.

"I just can't tell you right now." Shirou brushed off.

"And why not?"

"I don't have to answer that."

"I believe you do!"

"Well unfortunately despite what you think, you can make me!" Shirou reminded her.

"Then I'll come in to see for myself." Rias then took that moment to shove the door open wide enough for her to slip inside. Shirou realized he let himself be distracted, but was unable to stop Rias from entering in time much to his frustration. "Now what exactly is going on that's making you act so suspicious like this?!"

"G-Good morning." A nervous, smiling face popped out from the kitchen, staring at Rias with the same curiosity that Rias was staring at _her_ with. The now revealed Asia slowly slipped into a clear line of sight. "U-Um… I've finished preparing the food, if you'd like to join us then I could make some more."

Shirou wasn't quite sure on what Rias was shocked in the most:

The strange girl in his house, or her outfit which was a tight-fitting black T-shirt and even tighter thigh-hugging short-shorts.

Shirou groaned and turned back to Rias. " _Great_ , now I _have_ to give an explanation, thanks a lot, Asia."

Asia didn't really know what she did, but she felt like she should apologize anyway.

"…" Rias was still at a loss about this whole thing. "….Ah, Shirou, who is that? And should I be concerned?"

"What! No!" Shirou denied urgently, exasperated by Rias's presumption. "Look this is a long story alright."

"Well as you guessed from how long I've been standing here, I have time." Rias said in a serious tone while crossing her arms. "Now tell me what's going on here, though I should warn you I'll be very irate if I find out you've done something untoward against her. One of the things I will not tolerate from my servants is a lack of proper gentlemanly behaviour to the fairer sex."

"Yeah, Brotoki," Mika agreed teasingly. "She'd better never hear that you've done something to Asia~ I mean imagine what she would say if she heard you brought her here last night in torn clothes and practically naked.

"You're not helping!" Shirou yelled back at her. "And quit talking like that! It's creepy."

Rias gasped. "Shirou, is this true?"

Shirou was uncomfortable. "Okayyyy… Technically yes, that is what happened, but I didn't—"

He didn't get to finish because at that point before letting him explain, Rias tried to reach out and pinch his cheek, though Shirou caught her hand before she could.

"Get your hands off me woman!" Shirou said irritated before letting go of her hand.

Though she couldn't pinch him as intended, Rias still gave him a dirty look.

"We are going to have a long conversation about this Shirou." Rias said clearly not pleased.

"We were having one before you interrupted me." Shirou retorted.

Shirou knew at this point, Rias was probably thinking the worst on what could have happened last night, and he had a feeling that given what he knew about Rias so far, she was probably going to waste his time on some lame spiel on how to treat a woman, based on nobility, justice, pride, or her own egotism that was so annoyingly vile to him that it drove him to wretch.

"I didn't take you for such a terrible person, Shirou." Rias said sighing in disappointment while placing a hand over her mouth in sadness. "I knew you were rough around the edges and a complete delinquent, but I always believed you had a good heart inside, but to treat a lady in such a way, how unbecoming of one of my servants."

Shirou stared at her with half-lidded eyes. _"Funny how all this seems to float back to you._ _"_

He then spoke out-loud feed-up with this whole situation. "Okay, that's it! No! I am not spending the day rehashing some stupid misunderstanding scene you'd find in some generic anime." He looks to Mika. "First of all, you are wrong in some many I don't even know where to begin, so I'll start by saying, stop making this complicated!" Mika got the message and backed down. Shirou then turned to Rias. "And as for you, normally I couldn't care less what you think of me, but I will not stand here and be slandered in my own home by someone who knows nothing of the situations, so shut up and let me finish!"

Rias just stood surprised for a second, and then slowly nodded, she didn't know why, but she was felt like she was unable to argue. This was the first time in years anyone has ever ordered her, and even though it was someone almost the same age as her, she felt a commanding presence in his voice, one not unlike the kind she used on her servants in battle, but his somehow felt more powerful, like it carried an authority she couldn't disobey.

"Asia is just some girl I found last night, nothing else happened." Shirou explained.

Rias blinked. "Nothing?"

"U-Um actually that's not true." Asia spoke up.

Shirou's entire body froze at the sound of Asia's voice, the blonde came rushing out of the kitchen and stepping in front of Shirou. She meet Rias' confused gaze was an honest stare.

"The truth is Shirou-san risked his life to save me."

"Huh?" Rias blinked.

Shirou face-palmed. _"Well, so much for that."_

"He's a little rough but he's very kind and caring, that's why he let me stay here." Asia continued, not realizing Shirou's irritation.

"Okay, you've made your point." Shirou said trying to get her to stop.

"Back when Father Freed was going to hurt me, Shirou-san did everything he could to protect me." Asia went on, ignoring Shirou's desire for her to stop. "Even though I wasn't on the side of the Devils like he was—"

"Wait what?" It was then that Rias finally began to catch on.

"—And even though I was with the Fallen Angels, he still fought and saved me, I understand if your upset with me, but he truly did nothing wrong!"

And after that Shirou realized it was impossible to salvage this. _"And just like that, I'm boned."_

".….." Rias went silent again. However, this wasn't the silence resulting from shock.

It was like the silence from a fuse that was about to detonate a bomb.

Or in this case, a vengeful, violent, nuclear explosive named Rias.

Mika mysteriously produced a large bucket of popcorn from seemingly nowhere. "Ohahahah, this is gonna be great~"

Rias crossed her arms, showing no expression on her face.

"Shirou?"

"Yeah, Rias?"

"Is this girl a nun?"

"Yeah, she's a nun."

"And is she a member of the Fallen Angels side?"

"Heh, not anymore."

"And why's that?"

Shirou just groaned. "Come inside, I'll explain."

* * *

"I see, so that's what happened, I wouldn't believe it unless I saw her…"

Shirou sat on one side of the table next to Asia, while Rias sat on the other side next to Mika.

It had taken quite a while to get Rias to calm down enough to explain what happened last night, and even longer to explain it all from the beginning.

"So the contractor was killed, and you had to fight for your life instead." Rias said, crossing her arms, as she nodded in understanding. "But then if you defeated the priest, why did you take the nun?"

"Because if I left her there they'd take her back, and I already decide to save her." Shirou explained.

"No, it's not!" Mika denied with a teasing smile. "He saved Asia because he liiiiikes her and he wanted to protect her cause he's a Hero."

"Wait, hold on! That is not true at all!" Shirou immediately denied though they didn't look convinced.

Rias nodded again. "Okay, I think I understand what's going on now. However," Her eyes flittered to the girl sitting next to Shirou. "I have one question."

"Okay, what's that?"

"Why is she dressed _like that?_ " Rias gestured to Asia's strange choice in attire.

Shirou looked as if he didn't notice until now. "Oh yeah that, well her clothes were ruined, mine were too big, so the only choice was to give her some of Mika's."

"Yes, but isn't a bit to-ahem tight around the edges?" Rias averted her eyes awkwardly, clearly emphasizing the way Asia's tight clothes emphasized her curves. Asia herself seemed to be oblivious to the way she looked to outside observers.

Shirou looked at her carefully for a while, before turning back to Rias. "You may have a point, but I decided they're okay for now since we're in my house, and we'll buy her something else later."

This response made Rias think for a moment. "Well okay, I guess that works, but before, judging by what you said, I thought you had a problem with this sort of thing, you didn't seem okay with back at the club room."

"That was different." Shirou shook his head. "That was your own choice and I was just mildly bothered," He then pointed to Asia. "This is because we don't have anything else at the moment, and at least she's wearing something."

Rias heard his explanation and decide it was true in a sense so she put it aside. "Well then, when do you plan to return her."

Shirou raised a brow. "Why the hell would I do that?"

Rias blinked. "Well certainly you don't plan on keeping her, do you?"

"Yeah, that was kind of the plan."

It took a few moments for Rias to realize that Shirou was being serious. "You-You must be kidding." Rias gestured to Asia. "She's a nun."

"Would you relax, I told you she wouldn't hurt a fly." Shirou brushed off not worried. "And I'm pretty sure she'd hurt herself trying, here watch this, Asia try and touch the floor."

"Okay!" Asia attempted to obey and leaned her head forward, banging her head against the obstructive table between her and the floor. "Owie!" Tears streamed from her eyes as she rubbed the new bump mark on her forehead.

"See, what'd I tell ya."

Rias stared for five seconds before turning back to Shirou. "Granted she is helpless, but she still belongs to the Fallen Angels."

"Correction, she used to belong to them." Shirou pointed out. "She kind of quit last night, so technically she's on her own."

"Be that as it may, they still might come after her."

"Yeah, so?"

"So they're the group that's been enemies to Devils for centuries."

"Your point?"

"MY POINT IS, you can't be friends!"

"That's not the point Ri- wait." Shirou stopped and thought of something. "Are we friends?" He asked himself like he wasn't sure. "Ahhh, probably not since the total time I've known her is less than a day." Shirou decided before turning back to Rias. "Well anyway… That's not the point Rias, if I give her back to them she'll never survive, just last night some psycho priest was going to kill her and then rape the corpse!"

"Wait really?!"

"No, No," Asia insisted. "Father Freed wasn't going to kill me."

"Buuuttt, you don't deny he was going to rape you." Mika noted.

Asia just had her head down, not wanting to answer that.

"See that? That's why I couldn't give her back." Shirou said gesturing to Asia. "She's powerless and they're insane, if I just give her back, there would have been no point in saving her in the first place, and after what happened last night they'll be even more pissed so it'll be the equivalent of throwing a rabbit into a den of wolfs, I'm basically leaving her to die!"

Rias heard his reasons, but it didn't seem to change her mind. "Shirou I understand your good intentions, but you don't seem to comprehend the seriousness of this offence." She said. "If the Fallen Angels came with the intent to take Asia back and if they're willing to use force, I can't protect her, nor can I protect you if you interfere. I know you don't want to place her danger, but if she returns now she might be forgiven, however if they come at you with full force they'll exorcise you without mercy, you'll be killed."

Shirou leaned back into his chair, looking unfazed by Rias's warning. "You really think I didn't know all that before now." He asked her in all seriousness. "I know exactly what I've done, and you know what else, I'd do again. You say I'll die, well I say I'm not afraid of some overgrown crows, and no matter what I'm not giving her back because when I decide to help someone that doesn't mean I just fight a battle for them and leave, I make sure they're safe before I go, so no matter what happens I'm keeping Asia here until I know she's safe, that's a vow I made to myself, and even if I die, to me that's better than breaking my vow." He said without a shred of hesitation or doubt, and those words made both Mika and Asia look at him with eyes sparkling in admiration.

Rias sat there crossing her arms, process his decision. "And that's your final stance on this matter?"

"That's right." Shirou confirmed, his conviction never wavering.

The two of them then just sat quietly and stared at each other without making a sound, it could have been seconds or hours with all the tension built up, an outside observer could confuse this for some secret staring contest. Right now Asia and Mika felt a lot like third-rate background characters.

"Then it seems there's no changing your mind about this." Rias sighed, standing up from her seat. "If this is truly what you've decided, then you may do as you wish."

Shirou raised a brow. "Wait? That's it?" He expected some kind of argument from her.

"Yes, that's it." Rias agreed. "You've already done what has been done and I can't change that. While I strongly disagree with your decision, unless I plan to imprison you or harm you, there's nothing I can do to change your mind, and as you said before I can't force you, so I have no other choice but to acquiesce so long as this does not interfere with your normal duties as a Devil. You are free to act as an individual on this matter." She narrowed her eyes. "At the same time, due to the harsh tension between the Trinity Factions as a result of the Great War, neither I nor anyone from my clan can legally offer you any assistance in matters related to this nun, Asia Argento, in the event that danger related to Fallen Angels without risking serious consequences to the Devils. Do you understand."

Shirou scoffed. "I don't need you." He said. "My whole life I've dealt with problems on my own and this is no different."

Rias nodded and said nothing else, moving for the door.

She paused when her hand was on the door handle. "Shirou, the Fallen Angels aren't to be underestimated. If you fight them, there is a really good chance that you will die. I hope that given time, you will reconsider this decision."

"You seem to forget that I also shouldn't be underestimated, I beat one of them before, and that was when I was Human." Shirou reminded her.

"One on one maybe, but they don't intend to fight fair." Rias retorted. "They won't take any more chances and you alone can't beat a group of Fallen Angels."

"Hmph!" Shirou let out a small chuckle. "I've long since been prepared for death one day, but that won't be today, I won't just survive this, I'll win too."

Rias gave a small smile, a mixture of amusement, hope, pity, and worry. "I hope you're right."

"Oh, and two things, first could you make an excuse at school for me?"

Rias nodded. "And the other thing?"

"You think you could give me permission to promote anywhere in town?" Shirou requested. "Y'know just in case, after last night I don't want to chance it."

Rias gave another nod. "Very well, I give you permission to promote."

And with that, Rias left, leaving Mika, Asia, and Shirou alone.

They sat silently for several minutes.

Asia fidgeted nervously.

She was the source of conflict between Shirou and his master. If the Fallen Angels came for him, he wouldn't be able to protect her and himself. Even though he defeated Freed, she wasn't sure if he had the power to defeat her superiors/former superiors. She was grateful, but she felt as though her mere presence has become a nuisance to him. There was no telling how upset he was—

CLAP!

Shirou clapped his hands and turned to the two girls next to him. "Okay, who wants take out food?"

Mika immediately raised her hand. "I DO, I DO, I DO!"

…Or perhaps not.

* * *

During her time as a nun working for the Church, Asia had been witnessed to many gruesome, repulsive things, usually in the forms of injuries on a person's body and she was asked to heal them with her Sacred Gear. Mutilation, amputation, bodies that were torn to pieces and had to be slowly stitched back together by her power.

But none of them, not a one compared to the eating habits of the little girl in front of her.

The moment the tray of burgers, fries, chicken nuggets, and a variety of other menu items arrived, she immediately dived in, acting like a feral beast that hadn't eaten in a great deal of time.

Though it might be an exaggeration to call this the most repulsive thing she had ever seen but watching Mika it was still pretty unsightly.

The way she ate with gusto, almost savage like, it felt like she didn't appreciate her own food the modest way she was nibbling and bite into her burger.

The strange thing was Shirou was sitting right there, and he seemed like this didn't bother him at all, albeit he was eating too, but the way he ate was much different, he ate his food much like a speed eater, finishing any piece of food he had in a single bite, while not letting even a single crumb miss his mouth, it wasn't as messy as Mika's way of eating but he still ate much more than a normal person.

It was only after his fourteenth or fifteenth burger that Shirou noticed Asia wasn't eating. Placing the large burger in his mouth and swallowing it shortly after, he cleared his tray fast to talk to her.

"What's wrong?" Shirou asked, with curiosity. "Not hungry?"

Asia stiffened. "O-Oh! No! That's not it!" Asia then turned to Mika who finally stopped eating.

"Then what's wrong?" Mika asked.

"S-Shirou-san, Um does Mika always eat like that?"

Mika blinked. "What's wrong with how I eat?"

Shirou stared at her with half-lidded eyes. "A lot." He then looked to Asia. "But really, I just roll with it most of the time, and really it doesn't last that long, so who cares?"

"B-But is that really okay?" Asia asked.

"Look, honestly I'm just glad she's out of the house for something NOT Otaku related." Shirou admitted. "You have no idea how eventful that is."

Before either Mika or Asia could respond to that, they were interrupted.

CRASH!

The glass window exploded inwards towards them as a metal object flew straight through it.

Mika and Asia ducked.

Shirou however, didn't see any need to.

The object turned out to be a crowbar, which he effortlessly caught in the palm of his hand.

He then looked at the broken window and guessed what was going on.

Because of that he simply let go of the crowbar, and it hit the floor. After-which he groaned. Asia looked worried, while Mika was just concerned about her food.

"Oh great this again." He drawled. "But then again, I was getting bored."

"TSUKIHARU!"

Shirou's lips then formed into a smirk while Mika and Asia looked out the window.

Outside the restaurant were a large group of very colourfully-dressed thugs and delinquents carrying a variety of various tools and weapons with which they clearly intended on using to attempt to murder Shirou in the most painful way imaginable. Knives, guns, glaives, axes, hammers, crowbars, baseball bats, chainsaws, loose chains, iron pipes, golf clubs, 2x4 wooded boards, and brass-knuckled gloves. In total there were about fifty of them.

"COME OUT HERE AND FIGHT US!"

Shirou turned to the two girls at the table. "You two wait here, this won't take long." He then hopped out the broken window. "Guess I can use this as exercise after a meal."

Shirou then stood right in front of the horde of enemies without even flinching. "I gotta say, the weapons aren't new but, that fact that this many of you came together for this!" Shirou said surprised a bit. "I don't know whether to feel complimented that you think I'm that threating, or pity that none of you had the balls to come here without being in a group." He mocked.

This only served to anger the already bloodthirsty mob further.

"WE'LL SEE HOW COCKY YOU ARE AFTER WE SLAUGHTER YOU!"

The rest of them all roared in agreement with whoever it was that kept talking for them.

Back in the restaurant, Mika turned away with disinterest before turning to her nun friend. "You might want to look away."

"Huh?" Asia blinked.

{The following scenes contain violence that aren't suitable for younger viewers, VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!}

It would be possible to describe what happened after that point, but to do so would be to describe scenes of brutality so merciless, some would question your humanity.

Asia gasped in horror, covering her eyes but peeking through her fingers with curiosity even now and then before recoiling with renewed terror.

"He told you viewer discretion was advised," Mika reminded her. "You should have looked away."

"W-Why is Shirou-san doing something like that?"

Mika shrugged, scavenging through the tray, picking up a burger and wiping the fragments of broken glass off of it before taking a bite. "It's what he does, Brogoon is a really strong guy, and his strength attracts even stronger guys to him."

"That's one way of looking at it." Another voice interjected behind them. "Shirou is without a doubt the Strongest you'll find around here, but there's a reason why he fights all the time."

"Uwah!"

A boy with smooth brown hair and wearing casual attire was suddenly standing behind Asia, and that startled her.

Mika raised a calm hand in greeting. "Hi, Ren."

Ren greeted back. "Hey, Mika. Anyway, Shirou is someone who's usually passive-aggressive about most things in life, but in a fight he becomes heartless." Ren explained. "And it's not just strength either, he's been training in all kinds of different fighting styles to make sure he always had something up his sleeve, that's why they all say 'If it's one on one, Shirou will win.'. And it started back in Middle School when he first got into a fight."

Asia's eyes widened. "Was Shirou-san hurt?"

"Are you kidding? They wish they could hurt him." Ren scoffed. "Even back then he was ridiculously strong, most injuries that were serious to others were just scratches or flesh wounds to him. He was and still is unrivalled, and that's because he can't accept defeat no matter who he fights, and if victory is possible no matter hard it is, he'll find a way. In the beginning, he just beat whoever fought him, so they came back with their friends, and so he beat them too, but that still wasn't the end of it, they just kept coming and he just kept fighting. And now as you can see, he can't even go outside without someone or some group coming after his blood."

Mika turned to Asia and gestured to Ren. "Asia this is Ren, Ren this is Asia."

Asia bowed her head slightly. "H-Hello!"

"I know who she is." Ren said. "You're the former nun with healing powers."

"Huh?"

"How'd you know that?" Mika asked. "Are you spying on us~?"

"First of all, never say that again." Ren told Mika. "Secondly, I know 'cause Shirou called and told me about it last night."

"W-What? but does that mean—"

"That's right Asia, I know about the supernatural, Shirou found that out just the other day."

"Yeah, and I know too." Mika said. "I couldn't believe it."

"That's the point." Ren noted, he then leaned closer to Asia and asked in a quiet tone. "By the way, has Mika shown you her weird side yet?"

"Huh? Weird side?" Asia asked confused. "What do you mean?"

"He means how I have a thing for my Brother." Mika answered hearing her question. "And it's not weird, it's character."

Ren face-palmed. "No, no matter how you look at it, it's just not right."

"That's not you talking Ren, that's this country and its social expectations." Mika said shaking her head.

"Huuuuh?!" Asia gasped again, placing her hands over her mouth. "I-Incest?!"

"At least someone had the correct response." Ren commented.

"That's right, I love my Big Bro." Mika said without a shred of doubt or shame. "And I don't mean just the love between family, I also mean the love between a man and a woman."

"UWAAAAAAH?!"

Ren sweat-dropped. "In case you've forgotten, she's been sheltered her whole life, I don't think she was ready for your brand of crazy yet." Ren pointed out, refereeing to the shock and flustered state Asia was now in.

Before Mika could reply, there was the sound of broken glass being brushed aside, Shirou climbing back through the window and retaking his seat. It was hard to miss him using a napkin the wipe off the blood that was on his hands.

And that pretty much drew everyone's attention.

"Where'd that blood come from?" Mika asked.

"Hmm? Oh don't worry, it's not mine." Shirou said nonchalantly.

"Yes that's obvious," Mika replied in the same tone. "But where'd it come from?"

"I punched two guys in the gut at the same time, and they both coughed up blood at the same time." Shirou clarified. "Lucky for me though, it only got on my hands."

After he was done talking, his hands were wiped clean.

"So then what were we talking about?"

"Mika's unnatural personality." Ren answered.

Shirou sighed. "What'd she say?"

"Why do you always say it like that?" Mika asked.

Shirou turned to her with half-lidded eyes. "Force of habit."

Shirou then finally took notice of Ren's presence. "Oh hey Ren, when'd you get here?"

Ren shrugged. "I got here around the time you screamed, Viewer discretion is advised."

"So basically not that long?" Shirou asked.

Ren nodded. "How'd it go with Rias finding out about… Well, you know."

Shirou shrugged. "Could've been worse, she won't interfere but she won't send help."

"You really don't give a fuck do you?"

"Is that even a question?" Shirou asked amused.

The two of them chuckled a bit, while they fist-bumped.

"Are Shirou-san and Ren-san that close of friends?" Asia asked.

Mika leaned back in her seat. "Yep, their basically BFFs, they do everything together."

"Well that's exaggerating a bit, but we have had some good times." Ren agreed.

"Yeah, and some not so great." Shirou commented.

"Oh come on, remember that one time those to two perverts in our class were being chased by the Kendo club, and we saw them getting wrecked by wooden swords."

"Heh, that was pretty fun." Shirou said remembering with a laugh. "Best part was they got caught because we threw something at them and their scream gave away their hiding spot."

"Or that time where you took on that group of guys with weapons and said you'd use only your right arm, and when the last one standing tried to run, you picked up a weapon and threw it at him and knocked him out."

"Okay for the record, I threw it with my right arm, so technically I didn't lie."

"Or my favourite, that time us and Aika went to that karaoke place and you didn't want to stop until you had the highest score."

"Hey, at that point it was a challenge, and I never back down from a challenge." Shirou defended.

Asia looks between Shirou and Ren, a happy expression on her face. "They have a really nice friendship."

"Yeah, I know." Mika chipped in. "They're my favourite Yaoi shipping."

"Stop calling us that!" Shirou retorted irritated. "Y'know guys can be friends without it being about Yaoi."

Asia was about the speak, but Shirou placed his hand over her mouth.

"And don't ask what Yaoi means because I'm not explaining it."

"Me either." Ren agreed.

"I will." Mika said raising her hand.

"Okay that's it!" Shirou got up from his seat. "Come on Asia, we need to buy you some new clothes." He grabbed her wrist and she got up to.

"B-But I don't want to trouble you, Shirou-san." Asia argued.

"Yeah well, you'll cause more trouble to me if you stay dressed like that." Shirou argued.

Shirou then reached into his pocket. "Just let me pay for the food."

Ren then smiled and held up his wallet. "Hey don't worry that I'll pay for the food."

Shirou was surprised for a second but then smiled. "Thanks buddy."

They both fist-bumped again and Mika watched with a grin.

"I spy a Yaoi moment~" She teased.

Shirou then face-palmed. "Must you turn everything weird with your Otaku-ness?"

"I think we all know the answer is yes."

Shirou just stared and then sighed. "Come on Asia."

The two of them then walk out of the restaurant and leave.

"Well, all in all, I'm happy that Brovolver has loosed up a bit." Mika commented.

"That's a weird way to change the subject, but I agree." Ren said. "Shirou could use a few more people he's comfortable with, besides us."

"And after a day alone together, before they know it, a new ship will sail." Mika said enthusiastically.

"And there's the Otaku line we were all waiting for."

"Hey Ren, Brocile told me what you are."

"Yeah, I know, I said he could."

"So then, you're a furry?"

Ren looked annoyed. "Mika, please use the correct term, it's Youkai."

"So basically a furry?" She ignored him.

Ren groaned. "Yes… I'm a furry."

"Can you show it to me?" Mika asked, looking very excited.

Ren thought for a moment. "Fine, but not here, let's pay for the meal and I'll show you at your place."

Mika lifted her arms. "Carry me?"

Ren blinked. "That only works on Shirou."

* * *

"Thirsty?" Shirou asked, offering Asia a can of iced tea from the vending machine.

Asia reached out and took the can gratefully. "Oh… Thank you." The two of them took a seat beside a park bench near a body of water surrounding a water fountain after they both had left the restaurant.

"Sorry we haven't gotten to shopping yet." Shirou said, awkwardly before taking a sip from his canned drink. "I just felt like sitting down somewhere quiet first."

"It's okay Shirou-san." Asia assured before drinking some of her drink. "You have a really nice friend."

"I do don't I." Shirou agreed. "Ren's the kind of guy that doesn't sweat the small stuff."

"I see." Asia smiled, she was surprised by Shirou's display of enjoyment around Ren, but seeing him happy somehow made her smile. She had a great deal of trouble grasping the true character of Shirou Tsukiharu besides his innate kindness, but regardless she was glad that despite his harsh nature, he still had friends whom he could have fun memories, something she'd always desired.

"…Uh, why do you keep staring at me, while smiling?"

Asia then stiffened. She hadn't been quite sure when, but at some point during her train of thought, she had slipped into complete silence. Given their recent situation, it could have been mistaken for an _awkward_ silence.

"I'm sorry!" Asia blushed before turning her gaze back towards the ground.

"No worries." Shirou replied, not bothered.

They were a boy and a girl, alone together at a park. With no one else around. Sitting on a bench together. Waiting until they head to the same house in which they both lived in together.

What was there to say.

There were a lot of things Asia _could_ say, but it was far from likely what'd be the right thing to say.

She had tried saying thank you countless times, but Shirou would always just shrug it off and say, he wasn't looking for thanks, and that she should stop worrying about it. Though that was hard for her to do.

He didn't appear to have the same interests as his younger Sister (which might have been a good thing since Asia didn't have the slightest idea about the "anime" or "manga" or "eroge" that Mika seemed to be obsessed with.)

Asia's eyes wandered over to the Devil, watching as he rubbed his arm with discomfort.

"A-Are your injuries from before bothering you?"

Even though Asia had healed his right arm last night, Shirou still had a few sore spots from his previous fight. Although he was able to avoid a majority of the light bullets and the sword of light, some attacks still grazed him here and there, thus he had sore spots.

"It's not that big a deal." Shirou responded to her, he then pressed down harder on his left arm. "It's just an ache, It'll go away overnight."

"Hmph!" Asia pressed her hands against Shirou's side, getting his attention. "Even if it's not a serious injury, it's not something you should just ignore if you're hurting then let me heal you."

Shirou stared a bit surprised, he didn't expect the girl sitting next to him to speak in such a forceful tone. "…You have a good point." Shirou then raised his arm, and rolled up his sleeve, revealing his bandage covered arm.

Asia was shocked to see he had bandages over his arm, but hid her shock and chose not to question it yet. Instead, she healed the sore spot on his arm. When she was done, he looked at his arm satisfied.

"Pretty good."

As Shirou turned to face Asia, he noticed Asia's gaze was fixed on his arm, or more specifically what was around his arm.

"Those bandages…" Asia frowned.

Shirou apparently realized what Asia was staring at and rolled up his sleeve quickly before turning away.

"Forget what you saw."

"Those weren't from your battle with Freed… Were they?" Asia wasn't quite sure why she needed to ask, but she felt this wasn't something she could just ignore.

"…" Shirou hesitated to answer. "No."

"How did you get them?"

Shirou clenched his fists. "I can't tell you that."

"Shirou-san."

"And since we're on the subject on asking questions, I've got one for you." Shirou turned to face her. "Why were you with the Fallen Angels? When I first saw you, you said you were a believer of God and you had the power to heal others. I thought it kinda made sense at the time, but now none of it makes sense."

Asia flinched and turned away from his questioning.

"You obviously don't think like them, so how the hell did you end up in them in the first place? And more than that why'd you come to Japan at all?" After Shirou was done talking he looked away for a second. "…It's fine though if you can't answer."

Sure he wanted answers, but to demand them from her and yet to deny her answers when she asked, that would be hypocritical.

Asia remained silent, sitting on the park bench with a sad expression on her face.

"I was once known as the Holy Maiden."

Shirou paused and turned back to look at Asia. "What?"

Asia shifted nervously in her seat, her hands tightening around her can that was half-empty.

"A certain region in Europe, shortly after I was born, I who was discarded by my parents."

Shirou's eyes widened. _"Wait…? Is she actually telling me her past?"_

"I was raised in a Church nearby by a nun along with other orphans. Back then I who was a strong follower of the Church received a special power at the age of 8. One day a wounded puppy found its way to the Church I lived in, I prayed as hard as I could to God to spare it and then a miracle happened, I healed it. A person from the Catholic Church witnessed it by chance. From there on, my life changed. I was then taken to the main Catholic Church and I was symbolized by many as a Holy Maiden because of my healing power. I used my power to heal many believers and they were told it was a power of Divine Protection. Rumours brought rumours and I was respected as a Holy Maiden. Even without my approval. I had no dissatisfaction for how I was treated. People from the Church were kind to me and I didn't hate healing people. I instead was happy that my power was of use. That's why I was thankful for my power which was bestowed to me by God. But I was a bit lonely. I didn't have any friends I could open up to. Everyone treated me nicely and was nice to me. But there was no one willing to become my friend. I understood why. I knew that they were looking at my power as something irregular. They didn't look at me as a Human but as a creature that could heal Humans."

Shirou gripped his fist and grit his teeth.

"But one day, it changed. By coincidence, there was a Devil nearby and I healed it. A wounded Devil. I couldn't just ignore it. I thought that even if it was a Devil, I had to heal it if it was injured. It was those beliefs that made me take such an action. But that changed my life forever. One of the people from the Church saw that incident and notified others of the Church. The ministers of the Church were shocked about it."

 _(A power that can heal Devils!?)_

 _(Something absurd like that cannot happen!)_

 _(The power of healing can only heal the followers of God!)_

"Yes, there were several people who had the power to heal. But the power to heal the Devil was out of the question. The people of the Church thought it was common sense that the power of healing doesn't work on Fallen Angels and Devils. Apparently, a similar incident had happened in the past. The power to heal Fallen Angels and Devils that were not protected by God. But that was feared as the power of a Witch. So the people saw me as a heretic."

 _(Damn witch that heals Devils!)_

"The girl who was respected as a Holy Maiden was then feared as a Witch and the Catholic Church abandoned her. I didn't have anywhere to go and the organization of Stray Exorcists picked me up." Asia's eyes began to sting, her eyes became wet with salty tears. "In other words, I had to get divine protection from the Fallen Angels." She choked. "But I never forgot to pray to God. I also never forgot to thank God. Even so, I was abandoned. God didn't save me. What shocked me the most was that there was not even a single person in the Church that was willing to defend me. There was no one who cared about me…"

Asia had become so focused on telling her story that she neglected to pace herself.

All of those emotions coming all at once, the painful memories… They were overwhelming.

Tears rolled down her cheeks, dripping from her chin to her lap.

Shirou spent the whole time hearing the story while looking away.

His eyes were shadowed by his hair, he was still gritting his teeth.

He clenched his fist but, he raised his right hand and placed it over his chest then gripped.

"…It's because I didn't pray enough." Out of the corner of her eye, Asia noticed Shirou's body tensed. "It's because I'm clumsy. I'm so stupid that I can't even—"

"Enough." Shirou's voice was level and to the point, but it still held some sort of impact to it. He didn't turn to face her, instead he walked a few steps until he was standing in front of a tree. "After all that, you still believe in God? You don't hate the Church? What possible reason could you have to carry such a strong faith for those who abandon you?"

Asia shifted awkwardly. "I couldn't hate God or the Church, I have my strong faith because I believe that if I give up, I'll be left with nothing. So even if I was abandoned I still have God's love, and that's why I will be happy as long as I can use the power he gave me to help others and give smiles to my fellow believers if I can do that then I'm prepared to carry any suffering I was made to bear."

 _CRACK_

Shirou placed the fist of his right arm over the palm of his left hand and then crack his knuckles, after which he clenched his fist and let loose a strong punch on the tree in front of him.

 _CRUNCH! CRACK!_

Shirou's punch dug into the tree bark and crumbled it as well as the wood beneath it with a strong force. After which the force of the attack caused the tree to break and everything above Shirou's punch fell to the ground as if the tree was chopped down by an axe.

 _CRASH!_

"Shirou-san…"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Shirou didn't hear her as he looked up to the sky and roared out a deafening scream, like a man who bellowed his hatred to everything around him.

Asia was both surprised and a little worried. _"Have I angered Shirou-san…?"_ Asia wondered to herself, feeling anxious as Shirou began to approach her. Even though she knew in her heart that Shirou was undoubtedly a good person, she also knew he had a habit of being harsh, and on an occasion threatening.

Shirou then reached out his hand to her, though despite what she was expecting…

PAT

She had felt a gentle hand on her cheek.

"Huh?"

"You really are unbelievable."

Asia was surprised both by his words and his actions, considering they both carried a gentle warmth that she's never seen on him.

"Why do you insisted on torturing yourself like this?" Shirou asked. "No one no matter who they are should be expected to carry not only their own burdens but the burdens of others too. In all the time they called you a Holy Maiden they forgot something, something that you've also seem to have forgotten to. You're still a Human girl. You're allowed to have emotions and thoughts besides just 'how to serve God' you can laugh, cry, be happy, or unhappy if you want to. You can't just force yourself to take all this bullshit and do it with a smile, because before long that kind of thinking will just destroy you."

"But I—" Asia didn't know what to say, no one had ever said something like this to her.

"Just think about it for a second." Shirou continued. "The whole time you were at the Church, all you could ever do was what they told you. You were an object to them that they give the name 'Holy Maiden' to like a decoration, and they fed you whatever twisted truths they liked and told you it was God's will just to keep you in line. In reality, they just used you for themselves. Think about it, they knew that your power was a Sacred Gear but they told everyone it was Divine Protection just to fool everyone into believing their words and they only let you heal the people they said you could because they felt only people who thought the same as them deserved it. They didn't kick you out because the guy you healed was a Devil, it was because if people found out that your power wasn't really what they said it was then they would be the ones that got the backlash, so they pushed all the blame on you to save themselves. And all those dumbass followers went along with it because it was easier for them than to think for themselves."

If Asia had succeeded in any effort in suppressing her tears, those efforts were completely destroyed by Shirou's words.

"Shirou-san…" She tried, in vain, to wipe away her tears on her sleeves, but those tears were quickly replaced with more tears. "Shirou-san… I…"

"It's fine, let it out." Shirou said not bothered by her tears, he knew this was long overdue. "You should have done this a long while ago. Listen it doesn't matter what it was like at the Church anymore, or the Fallen Angels, remember you're free now. You don't need to follow someone else's words or orders to tell you you're a good person. You've already done so much to prove it and no one can deny it now, you are a good person. So Asia, for once in your life stop worrying about everything else and ask yourself, what do you want and why?"

"But I…" Asia hesitated. "I don't know what to do…"

Shirou let out an annoyed groan. "That's because you're not getting it, it's not 'What to do" it's 'What you want to do' so say what you want."

"But—"

"No buts!" He snapped. "Right now, say what you want more than anything!"

"I want… Uh—"

"Trust me, Asia." Shirou urged her. "Say what you've always wanted to say! What do you want? What have you always wanted? What do still want to this day? It's your time now, no one's gonna stop you!"

Asia lowered her head, a solemn expression as she tried wiping her tears away. "Ever since a was little, there was one thing I always wanted…The one desire I could not help…"

"Then say it. No matter what it is, say what you've always desire!"

"I want—"

"Don't be afraid, just say!"

"I want—!"

"Go on!"

Asia took a deep breath before looking up. "I want to have a friend!" She didn't even pause. Her face suddenly flushed red and she looked determined to say her piece. "Shirou-san, will you please be my friend?!"

Shirou answered before processing her words. "Yes-No-What?!" Shirou then looked at her with shock and confusion. "What did you say?"

"I want you to be my friend!" Asia repeated.

"Why would you want that?" Shirou asked, not getting it. "We barely know each other, we've met three days ago and only twice within those three days and the total time we've known each other is less than 24 hours."

Asia smiled shyly. "I know all that, but I still want to be your friend, when I'm with you and Mika-san I feel happier than I've ever been."

"Yeah-but…" Shirou paused processing Asia's words. "Really?" Asia nodded. Shirou felt a bit flattered. "Wow gee Asia thanks, but why? I mean every time we see each other one of our lives is in danger, if you stay with me that'll happen all the time. If you just want a friend there are other people you could be friends with somewhere."

"But that won't mean the same thing." Asia pointed out, still smiling shyly. "You act loud and violent some times. But you're still a very nice person, when I'm with you no matter what the danger I always feel safe, you protect me and others who need protecting and that's because you're a kind person with a kind heart that cares about others. You fight, but only when you need to, and you never start fights you only end them, and regardless of what others think or say, you always do what you think is right."

Shirou didn't interrupt, surprised by the sincerity of her words.

Asia reached out and held his hand. "When I feel your hand I feel safe, it's strong and rough, but also gentle and caring, and I can tell what kind of person you truly are inside."

She then moved closer.

This wasn't getting easier for Asia though. Her courage began to wane, her mind had begun to realize what she was doing, causing her face to flush.

"Shirou-san I want a friend," Asia restated. "But above all else, I want _you_ to be my friend. I want to have fun with you and Mika-san, and Ren-san and spend more time with all of you, I don't care that I'm a nun and you're a Devil because Shirou-san is a wonderful person!"

The resolute look in her eyes was stunning. Shirou found himself staring at her, in awe.

"Asia… I." Shirou knew now it was his turn to speak. He knew after hearing all that he owed her an answer.

He opened his mouth to give the girl his answer, her eyes were shining with warmth and hope.

"I think… I don't mind giving it a try." He answered.

His answer brought her greater happiness than he could imagine, but things took a turn after a moment.

"It's impossible."

A voice spoke that they both recognized.

They both look towards the direction of the voice, Shirou was angry and Asia was afraid.

The person standing there, on the surface of the water was the Fallen Angel he knew as Yuuma Amano. crossing her arms around her chest as she smiled at both of them.

Shirou glared and got ready for a fight. "This bitch…"

"Raynare-sama…" Asia called her by her name while trembling.

"To think you survived by becoming a Devil… How pathetic." Raynare said disgustedly.

Shirou fearlessly faced her with a smirk. "And to think you'd come here. I see your arms are all fixed up." Shirou taunted amused. "Tell me, does the hospital give discounts to strippers?"

Raynare's eyes twitched.

"I see you're just as good at pissing people off."

"And I see you're just as good at falling for it." Shirou said never losing the smirk.

She clenched her teeth, trying to suppress her anger. "I'll deal with you later." The Fallen Angel then extended her wings and turned to Asia. "That girl. Asia is our personal belonging. I'm taking her back. Asia, you know it's useless to run away?"

Asia shook her head in defiance, tears forming in her eyes. "…No. I don't want to return to that Church. I don't want to return to the people who kill other people. …Also, you people did things to me…" Asia replies back with disgust.

"Please don't say that, Asia." Raynare said softly. "Your Sacred Gear is essential for our plan. So please come back with me. I also took the time to look for you. Stop being such a troublesome bitch!" She finished sounding threatening.

"I-I refuse!" Asia rejected again, sounding more resolute than before. She stood beside Shirou. "I won't return with you no matter what! I'm going to live on my own and however I want, and I'm going to make friends like Shirou-san!"

Shirou chuckled, taking a step forward. "You heard her bitch, she's not going anywhere.

She sneers when he said that to her. "I don't want a filthy Low-Class Devil like you talking to me." She stares at him as if she is looking at something very disgusting.

Shirou was unfazed. "Oh, wasn't it that same Low-Class Devil that beat you into the ground and made you run like a bitch?" Shirou reminded.

Raynare growled at being reminded of that and summoned a Spear of Light. "If you won't come back then I'll take you by force!"

Asia was now worried, but Shirou wasn't.

"You can quit it with the bravado already,"

"What are you talking about?"

"I can see that you're trembling."

Asia was surprised when she saw that what Shirou pointed out was true. Raynare's arm that was holding the Spear of Light was shaking. But in fact, her whole body was shaking. She looked mad that he noticed.

"Whether it's from fear or anger, I can tell you don't want to be here. You don't want to fight me again." Shirou accused. "After our first fight, you were hoping that you could have just come here, take Asia and run. But now that's not possible and you know that in our first fight you tried everything and you still lost while I still have more power up my sleeve, if you fight me now you won't just lose, you'll die."

Shirou's confidence was well warranted. In truth, Raynare wanted to avoid a fight. The fear from her first conformation with Shirou was still fresh on her mind, the moment he stepped forward she could feel the fear enter her. She could still remember the feeling of helplessness she felt, the power coming from him before the final blow, the pure terror she felt as he was standing over her, She was about to die, those were the words she felt at that moment. That's why she knew she couldn't win.

That is if this was one-on-one.

Raynare smirked now. "Oh Shirou, didn't anyone ever tell you." She then raised her and snapped her fingers. "Fallen Angels don't play by the rules!"

Three magic-circles appeared above her and from them, three Fallen Angels appeared.

Shirou was surprised but still confident.

Asia looked as though all hope was lost. "…Dohnaseek-sama… Mittelt-sama… Kalawarner-sama…" Asia was trembling.

The three of them were in the air a few feet above and Raynare flew up to join them.

"Raynare, we heard your call." The one who said that was Dohnaseek, he was the only male among them, he was a middle-aged-looking man with short black hair and dark blue eyes. His attire consisted of a pale grey trench coat over a white dress shirt with a matching ascot, black pants and shoes, a pair of black gloves, and a black fedora

"Why have you called us Raynare?" The one who said that was Kalawarner, she was a tall and buxom woman with brown eyes and long, navy blue hair that obscured her right eye. Her attire consisted of a maroon, trench-coat like top with a wide collar, a matching miniskirt, and black heeled shoes. The trench-coat top was open at her chest, giving view to her breasts and cleavage. She also wore a gold necklace around her neck. She appears to wear a white shirt underneath her top, but it can only be seen from the bottom

"Must be something big, or you'd have done it yourself." The one who said that was Mittelt, she was a small girl with blonde hair styled Into twintails and blue eyes. She wore a Gothic Lolita attire, which consisted of a black Lolita dress with white frills, a large black bow on the front, and a green jewel embedded on the collar, white thigh-high socks, and black shoes. She also wore a large black bow on top of her hair.

"Do you see the situation now?" Raynare said, with some confidence restored. "Now you're the one who'll die."

"So he's the one." Dohnaseek said, with a bit of excitement.

"So we just have to kill this Devil, should be fun." Mittelt said.

"You should save yourself the trouble, and not resist." Kalawarner said.

Asia was more scared than ever, sensing a fight would soon break out. "Shirou-san, what should we—"

"Hahahahahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shirou surprised everyone by laughing in a carefree manner as if he had just heard a funny joke.

Raynare was frustrated by his lack of fear. "What so funny?!"

Shirou then calmed down.

"It's just when I saw you had a plan I expected something more. But is this it?" Shirou asked, almost amused. "Just three more overgrown crows who are barely as strong as you, not impressive." Shirou then rolled up his sleeves and pant legs, revealing linked bars of metal about the length and half the width of bricks wrapped around his legs and arms. Shirou unhooked his weights and let them fall to the ground.

 _CRASH!_

They hit the ground with enough force to fracture the ground they landed on.

"Now then let's begin." Shirou faced them.

Dohnaseek came forward unfazed by his words and display, he landed a few steps in front of Shirou. "How very prideful, but it means nothing. A lowly new-born Devil couldn't hope to stop us, just hand over the girl."

"[Promotion: Queen!]" Shirou declared and spread his Devil wings, before launching a fast punch with his right arm at Dohnaseek. He blocked Shirou's punch by defending with his left arm but skidded a few feet back.

Dohnaseek looked up and had a confident smile. "That was too slow—" Before he could finish, Dohnaseek suddenly fell to his knees with his head down and his right arm clenching his left arm that was punched. On his face was an expression of pain.

 **Play Charlotte OST - Miminari**

"Of course it was slow after all that was a hello shot." Shirou arrogantly pointed out.

The other Fallen Angels, as well as Asia, were shocked by what they were seeing.

"Has he brought Dohnaseek to his knees?" Mittelt asked in disbelief.

"From a single punch that he block, impossible." Kalawarner responded in the same tone.

Raynare didn't say anything but felt her confidence leave and her fear return.

Shirou then smirked and looked at the other three. Faster than the eye could see Shirou was no longer standing by the bench, he was now behind them looking in the opposite direction. "…Y'know its been a while since I've gone all-out."

The three of them all flinched and quickly turned around after hearing his voice behind him, only to see that he wasn't there either.

"That's why." They turned around again and saw that he was back where he was before and then he walked up to Dohnaseek who was still on his knees. "I'm not good at holding back."

Shirou then brought his leg up and kicked Dohnaseek in the chin, which launches him in the air and past the other three, he quickly straightens himself and flew beside them.

"Bastard…" Dohnaseek said while holding his chin.

Now the four Fallen Angels kept their eyes on the Silver-haired Devil standing before them. They all felt nervous at this point, realizing this fight wouldn't be as easy as they were planning we they came here.

"Now then." Shirou looked up to them with a fearless smirk and eyes that were like the eyes of a predator that had found its prey. "This might be sudden, but I think I'll kill the four of you."

 **Music off**

* * *

 **That's the chapter. I decide to give Raynare some trauma from her first fight with Shirou since he almost killed her and he used that strange power that he doesn't know about yet. Because of that, she wouldn't fight him alone so she brought back up. But Shirou is still Shirou so this won't worry him at all. And I'm sure you know but the trick up his sleeve that he told Rias about was his weights.**

 **Shirou defeated Raynare back when he was human and while wearing weights. Now he's a Devil which made him stronger as well as he used Promotion to power up to the level of a Queen, plus his weights are removed. Is that enough to win? Find out next time when we see Shirou slaughter some Fallen Angels.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more then be sure to leave a review, if you liked the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	6. Unbreakable Promise & Unstoppable Wrath

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This chapter will contain another one of Shirou's fights. And it'll be brutal. Hope you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Unbreakable Promise And Unstoppable Wrath**

* * *

 _I remembered…_

 _Pain coursing through, on every part of my body._

 _It hurt so much, I didn't even have the energy left to scream._

 _I didn't know who they were or why they were doing this, why. That's what I wanted to know._

 _It's been so long I've lost my sense of time._

 _At first, I thought "If this is my fate, then just kill me" death would be better then having to endure this._

 _But those thoughts were destroyed, I couldn't die yet, or rather…_

 _This rage growing inside of me like a burning inferno wouldn't allow me to._

 _My wrath was all that kept my will intact._

 _I swore I would survive this, I'll make all of you pay._

 _I'LL GET MY REVENGE ON EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!._

* * *

Shirou stood confident, feeling a bit of pleasure from the intimidated looks on the faces of his enemies.

Shirou summoned his Sacred Gear. "Now then, this might be sudden but, I think I'll kill the four of you."

Dohnaseek was now beside the other three in the air again.

"Dohnaseek, are you alright?" Kalawarner asked.

Dohnaseek stopped holding his chin. "More or less." He then turned a glare to Shirou. "This punk is stronger then I was expecting."

Raynare was starting to have doubts on whether they could win this, but Asia was right in front of her and if she let her get away now she wouldn't get another chance. However as her eyes wandered from Asia to Shirou, she noticed Shirou's Sacred Gear.

Raynare stared for a moment, but then let out a laugh that seemed forced which surprised Shirou and the other Fallen Angels. "…Hehehehe…" Raynare then attempted to look at Shirou with a taunting smirk, but that too seemed forced. "Is that really all you had? Guess in the end you were all talk."

Shirou frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means my superiors highly miscalculated your value."

Shirou titled his head a bit, still not getting it.

"To think they thought you were a threat when your Sacred Gear was nothing more than a Twice Critical." Raynare said mockingly.

The other three Fallen Angels sudden felt more sure about this after hearing that.

"You're kidding, that trash is his Gear?" Mittelt said mockingly amused.

"This'll be easier than I thought." Kalawarner taunted with renewed confidence.

Shirou just looked at his gauntlet. "Okay? So what's Twice Critical?"

"It's a pathetic low-tier Sacred Gear that double the power of its user for a short time." Raynare explained.

 _"So it's basically what I thought it was."_ Shirou thought.

"Your Gear is worthless, you might as well be fighting me with sticks and stones." She continued to mock.

Deep down Raynare knew things weren't going to be as simple as she was saying, Shirou was strong, the very fact that she brought back up was proof of that. The problem was she was desperate, she was grasping at straws trying to tell herself this would work. That and her intelligence was much lesser than her pride, in her mind she was a powerful Fallen Angel and he was a Low-Class Devil.

"Hmph." Shirou snorted getting her attention. "If that's true then I'm satisfied, after all, last time I beat you with my bare hands if anything you should feel honored that I'd fight you with sticks and stones since it's much more then you deserve." Shirou mocked back.

Raynare scowled while gritting her teeth, her anger returning. "Tch… You."

Shirou then frowned. "And besides that, I thought I told you." Shirou once again used his increased speed to vanish from where he was standing and was now in the air, right in front of Raynare. "Enough with the bravado." Before she could react and before the others could turn their heads to see him right next to them, Shirou hit Raynare with a strong elbow attack on her face. She now had a bloody nose and the strength of the attack knocked her out of the air and into the water below.

The other three all looked at him shocked. They then glared, and all summoned Spears of Light and tried to slash him, unfortunately, they only slashed air as Shirou was longer where he was.

"Where is he?" Dohnaseek asked as they looked around trying to find him.

"Up here!" They heard Shirou's voice and looked up to see he was hovering a few stories above them.

"What? How did he fly that high up so fast?" Kalawarner asked shocked.

Shirou looked at them bored. "Tell me, is everything I do going to be a surprise to you?"

 **Play OST Naruto Shippuden - Anger (Extended)**

Dohnaseek roared and charged at him while Kalawarner and Mittelt followed. Dohnaseek tried punching Shirou left and right, but Shirou effortlessly dodged each one, to him Dohnaseek's fists were moving in slow-motion. Shirou then caught both his hands and held him in place and then headbutted him by smashing his head in Dohnaseek's face which broke his nose and made an audial cracking sound. Dohnaseek screamed and held his face with both his hands leaving himself wide open. Shirou then placed both his hands together and slammed them into the top of Dohnaseek's head making him crash down into the water.

Without missing a beat, Kalwarner charged at him from the right and Mittelt charged at him from the left, both aiming to attack at the same time with Spears of Light in hand.

"DIE!" Kalawarner yelled.

"You first." Shirou replied.

Shirou waited from them to get close and when they were within range he saw his chance. Shirou used to the momentum of how much speed they picked up from their charge and hit Kalawarner with a palm strike in her face which knocked her back, that same second he kicked Mittelt in the stomach which knocked her back. Shirou then charged at Kalawarner and stopped right in front of her, he then spun and hit her in the side of her head with a roundhouse kick. The strength behind his kick knocked her out of the air and into a tree on the ground. He then turned around and charged at Mittelt at high speed, Mittelt saw him coming and tried throwing a Spear of Light at him, but he sailed passed it with ease, without stopping he lands a powerful punch on Mittelt stomach, the punch is so strong a shockwave could be heard on impact, it tore through the fabric of her dress and left an imprint of his fist on her flesh. Mittelt cough blood from her mouth. Shirou was about to finish it. When suddenly Raynare reappeared behind him holding a Spear of Light. She tried to stab him with it but, Shirou just raised his right arm and hits her in the face with a backhanded punch.

As she was knocked back a bit from his punch, Shirou turned around to finish her with another punch but before he could, Dohnaseek reappeared and grabbed his arm and summoned a Spear of Light.

"You're dead!" Dohnaseek declared.

Dohnaseek prepared to stab Shirou with his Spear of Light, but Shirou was unfazed.

"You're slow." Shirou replied.

 **[BOOST!]**

 _CRACK!_

With his power temporary doubled Shirou then used his other arm to grip the arm that Dohnaseek used to hold him in place, he then strengthen his grip and crushed Dohnaseek wrist, there was a loud crack heard, and Dohnaseek stopped his attack and let go of Shirou because of the pain he felt, Raynare noticed Shirou wasn't paying attention to her anymore and tried to attack him again, but Shirou without even looking hit her with a chop on her side. Feeling the impact of that attack stop her. Shirou used the remaining ten seconds of power to grab both of them by the head and slammed their heads into each other, this made both of their foreheads bleed. Shirou then felt his power-up was gone and thus let go of them and punched Raynare in the face sending her flying into the water, then kicked Dohnaseek in the stomach also knocking him into the ground in a different direction.

Shirou saw the two of them fell. "I forgot to tell you this, but I'm known for my brutality." Shirou informed them.

He then looked to his right to see Kalawarner back in the air. She summoned a Spear of Light and threw it at Shirou, but Shirou lazily tilted his head and the Spear harmlessly flew passed him. Kalawarner was surprised by the ease in which he dodged her attack. Shirou then flew towards her at high speed, but halfway there he changed his direction and Kalawarner saw him circle around her, he then closed the gap and appeared behind her and kicked her in the back sending her back down and this time in the water.

A second later, Mittelt appeared above him with a Spear of Light in her hands, attempting to slash Shirou from above.

"I'll Kill You!" She screamed.

Shirou simply raised his arm and blocked the Spear with his gauntlet. Mittelt was shocked that her attack didn't work, and in that moment of carelessness, Shirou grabbed her arm and pulled her down from above him and making her facing him up-side-down.

"You'll die trying." Shirou replied.

Shirou then threw a strong right-handed punch on the right side of her body, causing her great pain and launching her into the water. He then turned to see Raynare standing again, Shirou then flies higher up in the air.

"Get back here!" Raynare yelled as she flew after him.

After deciding he was high enough, Shirou came to a sudden stop, Raynare who was surprised tried to stop as well but before she could Shirou speed blitzed to her and kicked her in the stomach, the force of his kick made her stop and cough some blood, Shirou didn't stop there. Shirou grabbed Raynare from both sides of her body with both of his hands and then lifts her body above his head.

"PILE DRIVER!" Shirou roars.

Shirou then fly's downwards at fast speed while holding onto Raynare who in vain is trying to break free from his hold. Shirou then reaches the fountain and just mere inches from the surface he smashes Raynare headfirst into the water if it were the ground she most likely would have died but the water slightly softened the impact and she survived.

Shirou then dodged a Spear of Light from the right and saw Dohnaseek in the air, Dohnaseek then summoned another Spear of Light and Shirou flew towards Dohnaseek as he prepared to throw his Spear.

"You can't dodge this!" Dohnaseek yelled.

Dohnaseek then threw his Spear at Shirou, Shirou seemingly made no attempt to dodge it, then as the Spear was dangerously close Shirou simply dodge with a barrel roll and sailed passed the Spear without stopping his advance. Dohnaseek was shocked at how he was able to dodge his Spear in such a way. Shirou then flew past Dohnaseek and stopped behind him.

"Can't I?" Shirou replied.

As Dohnaseek turned around the face Shirou, the moment he did Shirou hit him with both his fist and punched Dohnaseek in both sides of his face at the same time. That attack made blood fall from both Dohnaseek's ears and nose, it even knocked out some of his teeth. Shirou then finished his attack by raising up his left leg and bring down an axe kick on Dohnaseek's head. The kick knocked Dohnaseek out of the sky and in the water with the other three.

Shirou looked down on the four of them in the air, all of them had grave injuries and had trouble even getting up. They all looked at him with contempt while he just looked at them with his eyes narrowed as if they weren't even worth his time.

 **Music Off**

"Y'know I'd have been disappointed if I'd actually expected anything from you all."

Raynare struggled to get up and glared at him while panting. "Damn you… This wasn't supposed to happen."

"Hmph… You seriously thought you could win just by bringing a few weaklings whose power is just a hair below yours? Don't be so vain."

Shirou then flew back down to the ground and stood in the spot where he was when the fight started. While Raynare, Dohnaseek, Kalawarner, and Mittelt flew back up in the air, but slower than usual due to their injuries. They then formed a square formation where they were all close to each other.

"You bastard," Dohnaseek spoke. "How were you able to constantly read our moves this whole time?"

"Huh? You say that like it was hard." Shirou responded tauntingly. "I was able to read your moves cause they were _easy to read_. You guys all do the same thing, your hand to hand skills are at an amateurs level so they aren't hard to dodge, and considering I fight people with that same level of skill almost every day I'm used to them. As for your Spears of Light, I basically get how you use them, you guys can summon one after another but the problem is you only know how to throw them straight forward since I know where they going to come from how could I not be able to dodge them."

They all clenched their teeth, anger at the condescending why Shirou lectured them on their fighting style, however despite their anger they couldn't say anything because they couldn't deny that it was the truth. And that plus the fact that nothing they've done so far has even fazed him brought them frustration.

 _"I-Incredible…"_ Asia whom the others seem to have forgotten stared at Shirou with amazement. Sure she knew Shirou was strong since she saw him fight Freed, but this was different, this was on a whole other level.

Shirou's movement weren't like from when he fought Freed, where he was limited in space, charged at his opponent, and sometimes let himself get hit. Shirou right now was different, he was very skilled and his technique was flawless without any wasted movements. It was like watching a veteran warrior fighting children. She didn't think Shirou had the power to beat one Fallen Angel, yet here he is overwhelming four, and to think he's only been a Devil for a week. It was both amazing and terrifying.

Dohnaseek turned to Raynare. "Any ideas? We can't just let him humiliate us like this."

"I know that." Raynare smirked. "There is one thing that'll work."

Raynare then turned to Shirou. "Shirou, you say that we can't defeat you? Then let's test that theory."

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "What are you up to now?"

Raynare, Dohnaseek, Kalawarner, and Mittelt all summoned Spears of Light, Raynare's was red, Dohnaseek's was blue, Kalawarner's was yellow, and Mittelt's was pink. They all held up their Spears ready to throw them.

"Dodge this next attack if you can Shirou and even if you do look at what's behind you." Raynare taunted.

Shirou knew she was refereeing to Asia who was only a few feet away.

Raynare's plan was to fool Shirou with a bluff. In truth Asia was far too valuable to risk destroying with this attack, however, Shirou didn't know that, so Raynare believed he was under the impression that if he dodged she would get hit by the combined attack and die, and since it appeared that Shirou wanted to protect Asia she believed he wouldn't let her be in danger thus he wouldn't dodge. Her plot was even if Shirou was stronger than she thought, he wasn't strong enough to withstand four Spears of Light at the same time.

Shirou didn't look worried at all. "Is that your last-ditch effort?" Shirou sighed. "Fine I'll play along, but I won't need to dodge."

Raynare grinned believing her plan had worked. "Then Die!"

The four of them all threw their Spears at the same time as they all flew side by side towards Shirou, the Spears of Light swirled around each other and then they all combined into a single large beam of light that was the combined colour and power of the separate four. Shirou saw the attack coming towards him and then planted both he feet firmly on the ground, then brought his left arm back and once the attack reached him, he punch the beam of light with his gauntlet covered fist.

 **[BOOST!]**

The result was an overwhelming power struggle, the power of the beam of light was clashing with the power from Shirou boosted power. The clash of power was Shirou trying to use the energy of his Twice Critical to push back the beam of light fired at him and destroy it and trying to do it before he hit the ten second time limit, while the beam of light was meant to overwhelm him, push him back and blast into him, the Holy beam of light was meant to destroy his body and end his life upon impact. Their struggle of power was causing damage to the scenery around them, shockwaves were being disbursed, the water in the fountain was being blown into waves, there was a strong wind blowing in every direction attempting to blow everything away, and the clash of power looked like a kaleidoscope of bright colours on the side of the power of light clashing against a strong green colour from Shirou's side.

Shirou clenched his teeth trying to overpower the beam of light, then with one final push his Sacred Gear released an even brighter glow and Shirou pushed his fist forward. Resulting in the beam of light being overpowered and destroyed. Everything was clear now and Shirou stood back in place not even seeming tired from that display of power.

"Hmph… Is it sinking in yet?" Shirou commented.

The four Fallen Angels all looked at him shocked and with disbelief, also with fear this time. They couldn't understand. That was their combined strength which they were counting on to succeed and yet he still overcame it, and he seemingly did it effortlessly. They didn't know what else they could do, what else was there to do, the Devil standing before them was someone they couldn't defeat.

Shirou saw their looks of fear and was satisfied, he then brought out his wings and used this opportunity. With a flash of speed he appeared before the Fallen Angels inside their square formation, as they all broke out of their stupor the see him beside them, Shirou made his attack. Shirou laid down in mid-air and spread out his limbs attacking all four enemies at once, Raynare was hit by his left arm, Mittelt was hit by his right arm, Kalawarner was hit by his left leg, and Dohnaseek was hit by his right leg. These attack all hit them at the same time and sent them crashing into the ground in four different directions. Shirou remained in the air looking down on them.

"I gotta say you guys were really grasping at straws with that last one, weren't you? Did you seriously think the combined power of four losers like you would be enough?"

Raynare looked up at him from the ground. "This shouldn't be possible, you-you just recently become a Devil, how did you gain this power?"

Shirou smiled. "I trained all week last week."

Raynare grit her teeth. "I hate you!"

"Bitch you love me."

Raynare got even more frustrated.

Dohnaseek then asked. "This power isn't normal, are you really just a reincarnated Devil?"

Shirou chuckled a bit. "It's true, I am a Devil, but." Shirou then held his fist in the air. "I'm also the one who looks down on all other races." Shirou declared with pride.

"How arrogant." Kalawarner responded.

"Yeah well, arrogance is a right that's given to the strong, but I guess weaklings like you wouldn't know about that, would you?" Shirou mocked them.

Raynare was so frustrated right now she didn't even register his words. All she could think about was the hatred she felt about this entire situation.

Shirou's strategy was simple, he first begins the fight by dodging their attacks and stuck to counterattacking to get an idea on their level of ability. Afterwards, he deliberately kept attacking them one at a time, turning a four on one fight into a one on one fight in fourth succession. To make this work he repeatedly hit them with strong attacks that would take them out of the fight for a short time and then moved on to the next opponent, since he was much stronger than each of them individually it was an easy task. And since they had almost no teamwork skill or coordination they were unable to break this pattern otherwise they might have been able to turn the fight around at some point while fighting like this Shirou kept the impression that he was stronger than all of them put together with the intention of breaking their will to fight and making them easier to defeat, this goal was accomplished when he demonstrated his greater power and destroyed their beam of light.

"Now then, I've played with you guys long enough, It's time I kill you." Shirou said coldly.

Raynare tensed up when she heard that. _"Kill me? No, no, no, no, I can't die here, not when I'm so close. I had a perfect plan!"_ She looked at Shirou with anger and frustration. _"It was perfect until he came_ _and ruined it!"_ She then looked towards Asia. _"…No. Not yet."_

After formulating a plan, she made her move. Raynare summoned a large Spear of Light. Shirou seeing this prepared to move in but, oddly enough Raynare didn't throw the Spear at him, instead she threw the Spear at the water beneath him. Upon impact the Spear exploded causing a large body of water to rise up around Shirou, Shirou didn't know why she would do this except for possibly using it as a smokescreen before attacking, thus Shirou had his guard up. However, his thoughts were proven wrong.

"Iyaaa!"

Shirou's eyes widened as he recognized the voice of that scream. He finally realized Raynare's plot, she used the water explosion as a distraction to make him think she'll go for him, when in reality the same second she threw the Spear, she went towards her true target; Asia.

The moment he realized that Shirou rushed towards where Asia was as fast as he could. He saw Raynare hold Asia with her wings wrapped around her.

"Damn it! ASIA!" Shirou called out.

"SHIROU-SAN!" Asia cried out.

Just as Shirou was about to reach them, Raynare disappeared and the two of them were no longer there, causing Shirou to simply fly passed empty space. He then stood on the ground.

"Asia.…." He spoke.

Shirou then clenched his fists grit his teeth and felt something snap inside himself.

Dohnaseek, Mittelt, and Kalawarner were in the air and saw what had happened.

"Raynare escaped." Kalawarner said.

"And she has the nun too." Mittelt said.

"Then there's no longer a reason for us to be here." Dohnaseek pointed out. "We got what we came here for, let's use this chance to get away."

 **Play OST Naruto Shippuden - Heavy Violence**

No sooner then he finished saying that, Shirou appeared right in front of him and kneed him in the chin, which knocked him back.

"You're not going anywhere." Shirou spoke in a dark, haunting tone.

Shirou was different now, both his eyes had the same golden glow they had when he first fought Raynare and he was covered in the same black aura as he was from that last fight as well. Kalawarner and Mittelt were frozen with fear after being comforted by both of them that they made no attempt to escape.

"Playtime's over. You bastards, I'LL SLAUGHTER ALL OF YOU!" Shirou roared.

 **[DRAGON BOOSTER!]**

Shirou was so full of rage he didn't notice at the time, but after that new different announcement, his Twice Critical had changed into a different form. It now had spikes going around both side greatly resembling Dragon scales, it became a deeper shade of red, two golden spikes manifested on the lower edges of the gauntlet and a mark of a Dragon appears on the center of the green jewel.

This change gave Shirou even greater power, that plus the power he already received from change to his eyes and aura made Shirou into an overwhelming force of power, and he planned on using every bit of that power to kill the three in front of him.

Shirou then flew in front of Mittelt and unleashed a flurry of punches so fast his hands seemed like a transparent blur that couldn't be followed, he rained down his attacks all over her defenceless form and the power behind his attacks were so strong, Mittelt felt as if her body was breaking.

"YOU THINK THE LIKES OF YOU CAN EVER STOP ME!" Shirou screamed while punching.

After a few seconds, he stopped and Mittelt was now a bruised and bloody mess that was barely alive, Shirou watched as she no longer had the energy to fly or move and thus flew into the water beneath. Shirou then turned to face Kalawarner, Kalawarner who saw him turn his attention to her felt immense dread fill her mind, she turned and to fly away, but before she could even attempt it she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw Shirou holding a firm grip on her that prevented her from moving.

Kalawarner knew she was cornered. No wait, don't kill me, please I beg you!" Kalwarner pleaded.

"Forget it." Shirou said mercilessly. "I said that I would kill you and I'm a man of my word!"

Shirou pulled his fist back then smashed it into Kalawarner's face, it was even more painful since it was the fist with the gauntlet covering it. After causing her pain from his hit, Shirou then let go of her shoulder and placed his grip around her left. Shirou then held her in place while he ruthlessly punched her in the stomach over and over again, he didn't stop even when he heard her ribs breaking or when he saw he coughing blood.

"Please… No-No more…." Kalawarner begged while panting.

Shirou stopped punching and just looked at her, her stomach was so bruised it was a dark purple colour and large amounts of blood was spilling from her mouth. Shirou didn't even look the least be mournful from the state he put her in and simply let go of her, letting Kalawarner fall into the water beside Mittelt.

Shirou then looked to Dohnaseek.

"You're next."

Shirou then rushed to Dohnaseek and prepared his assault. Dohnaseek tried to escape but it was in vain, as before he could even attempt it Shrou appeared in front of him. Shirou then spun and hit Dohnaseek with a strong roundhouse kick aimed at his left arm.

 _CRACK!_

"AAAUUGGGGHHHH!"

The Shirou behind Shirou's kick was so strong the bones inside Dohnaseek's left arm were broken and his arm bent in a painful-looking angle. Dohnaseek held on his arm in pain as he howled in pain. Shirou didn't let him do that for long as he relentlessly unleashed a barrage of punches all over Dohnaseek's body with the same speed he used on Mittelt, he finished it by flying above Dohnaseek's head and hitting him with a downwards punch that sent him into the water with the other two.

Shirou then looked down on the three of them with disdain in his eyes, they were cold and unforgiving.

Dohnaseek had a broken left arm, twelve broken ribs, several fractured bones, three teeth knocked out, a broken nose and blood dripping from his nose, mouth and ears.

Mittelt had a mild concussion, dizziness, open wounds all over her body, the bones in her arms, shoulders, ribs and chest were cracked, there was large damage to her stomach and blood was dripping from her mouth, nose, and forehead.

Kalawarner had a fractured shoulder, all her ribs were broken, her vision was a little blurry, her stomach area was bruised purple and she had blood dripping from her mouth, nose and forehead.

Shirou knew in the state they were in now, anyone could kill them, thus his work was almost complete.

Dohnaseek cough as he was on his knees. "Damn you Raynare, you lead us to our death and then you abandon us."

"That's true isn't it." Shirou agreed. "That really was a dick move on her part and you guys really didn't deserve this, I mean I'm still gonna kill you of course, but I give my pity."

"How kind of you." Dohnaseek said sarcastically.

 **[BOOST!]**

Shirou then held up his hand in the air. "I've been meaning to try this out for a while, but I was pretty sure I need more training, but since I have my power doubled and I've promoted to Queen, I'm pretty sure it'll work." Suddenly magic power started to gather around Shirou's hand and that power soon turned into electricity which was growing and discharging around the palm of his hand.

 _ **RESPOND THUNDER!**_

Shirou was using the same magic attack he saw Akeno use in the battle against the Stray Devil. After seeing her stance and how she gathered her magic power around her hand, he attempted to do it himself however it wasn't nearly as strong as Akeno's one, but this time his magic power has doubled from his Sacred Gear, his magic power had gone up from his promotion and his power has increased further from the effects of his dark aura. All those factors have made his Thunder even stronger the Akeno's.

"Lightning magic?!" Kalawarner spoke fearfully.

"Yes, I set this aside for the end and look at where you all are." Shirou said refereeing to the fact that they're all knee-deep in water. "Since your all soaking wet and the fact that your all so injured that you can't even stand up, it goes without saying that you won't survive this."

Those words filled the three of them with great terror. It had finally sunk in, there was no escape, no way to get out of this hopeless situation, they were about to die.

"Any last words?" Shirou asked.

"You're a monster." Mittelt responded.

"Yes, I am, too bad you didn't realize that sooner."

Shirou then brought his hand down. "Die!"

BOOOOOOOOM!

BAAAANNNGG!

Shirou then released the Thunder in his hand and it blasted into the water fountain, this caused the electricity to stream throughout the entire body of water and electrocute Dohnaseek, Kalawarner, and Mittelt with an extremely high shock. All of them let out a loud scream before their bodies exploded and after Shirou's attack. In the end, all that was left was a large amount of black feathers floating in the water. Shirou looked unfazed by this action and only glared into the distance.

"You're next, Raynare."

And then he turned.

And then he flew away.

 **Music Off**

* * *

A tired sigh escaped Shirou's lips as he shut the front door to his house behind him. Shirou was now back to his usual self, both his eyes and aura were normal.

"I'm back…"

Despite being on a couch several feet away, Mika was still able to catch Shirou's words, giving him a glimpse from over her hand-held game.

"Hey, Brocopter!"

"Hey, Shirou." Ren greeted coming out of the kitchen.

"Ren? You're here?"

Ren scratched his head. "Yeah, I brought Mika home for you and decide to wait for you to come back before I left."

Shirou nodded. "I see, thanks."

Shirou then began to make his way upstairs.

Mika then approached him. Perhaps it was because of the determined look on his face, or the fact that he wasn't wearing his weights. It also could have been the smell of blood coming from him. But both Mika and Ren could tell something was wrong.

"Hey, Big Bro…" Mika looked around. "Where's Asia?"

Shirou didn't look at her. "She's out for a moment, I'll bring her back soon."

Mika was a little confused. "But why did you come back without her if you were just going to bring her back?"

"I had to get something first."

"Then where is she now?"

Shirou scowled annoyed. "Look stop asking questions, I'll get her back alright."

"Shirou." Ren spoke up. "Asia was taken by the Fallen Angels right?"

Both Shirou and Mika were shocked by Ren's words. Mika because she was now worried about Asia's safety and Shirou from wondering how Ren knew.

"What? Is that true?" Mika asked teary-eyed.

Shirou knew he couldn't hide it anymore and sighed. "Yeah… It is."

Mika's expression was that of a sad puppy. "But how?"

"It's complicated." Shirou then turned to Ren. "But how did you know?"

"I told you, Youkai are good at sensing others without being noticed, shortly after we parted ways I felt a clash of different powers, one was yours and the others were Fallen Angels, what happened?"

"The one I faced the first time grabbed Asia and ran, and I killed the other three."

"Big Bro." Mika spoke still upset. "What's going to happen to Asia?"

Shirou clenched his fist. "Nothing's gonna happen, 'cause I'm getting her back and I'll kill that overgrown crow this time."

"You realize she'll have back-up right." Ren pointed out. "It'll be just you against an army of Exorcists."

"That won't stop me! I have to save her," Shirou then thinks back. "I swore it."

"Are you saving her because of that or because she's your friend?"

"What? I…" Shirou didn't answer.

"She is your friend Bronaka." Mika added. "I know it and you know it too, even back when you first saved her, it wasn't because you felt obligated like you do with others, it was because you personally wanted to save her, Asia's my friend and she's yours too that's why you're going to save her now."

"I know that to Shirou." Ren said. "I could tell the moment I saw you guys today, you had fun with her and you acted differently when you were with her than you did with others, the only times you were that open with yourself was when you're with me, or Aika, or Mika, you wanted to keep her safe and now she's someone among the few people you actually like isn't she?"

Shirou heard their words and processed them, before letting out a small laugh. "Heh, am I that easy to read? The truth is, Asia never had a friend before in her life, that's why she asked me to be her first." Shirou then looked determined. "Regardless of anything else, I will save her no matter who I have to fight."

"You won't do it alone." Ren stepped forward. "I'll go with you."

Shirou didn't expect that. "You will?"

"I don't have a master or rules I have to follow so it's not a problem. We'll do it together."

Shirou knew Ren was serious and accepted it. "Yeah alright," They both fist-bumped.

Mika sensing the serious atmosphere didn't comment on this being a Yaoi moment to her.

Shirou then turned to Mika. "Mika, go to Rias and tell her what's going on, she'll want to hear about this."

"Go to your Devil not girlfriend and tell her you're going to storm an enemy stronghold to save a girl you meet yesterday?" Mika summarized and gave a thumbs up. "Sure leave it to me."

"Okay before we go, there's something I came to get."

Shirou then went to his room and looked under his bed. After that, he pulled a box out from under there and opened it.

"Been a while since I wore this."

* * *

It was uncharacteristically quiet in the Occult Research Club's meeting room that evening.

Kiba was busy reading a book.

Akeno was sitting on the couch, taking polite sips from her teacup.

Koneko was busy munching on snacks.

Rias meanwhile was busy getting ahead on paperwork, both for club activates and Devil work.

BANG!

Then the door flew open and a hoodie-wearing girl drenched in sweat stumbled through the door while breathing heavily trying to catch her breath. Kiba came up to her and helped her stand straight.

"Are you okay?" When Kiba got a good look at the girl's face, he noticed she looked familiar, as if he'd seen it somewhere before. "Um… Chief, were you expecting a visitor today?"

Rias sat up from her seat her eyes widening when she saw the distressed, exhausted, and sweaty face of the girl who appeared before them. "Mika?" She immediately rushed to her side, causing her servants to stare at her in confusion. "Mika? What's wrong? Are you hurt? What happened?!"

"Calm down!" Mika took out a bottle of water and drank it which lessened her fatigue. "I'm fine, I just have trouble walking far distances, considering I hardly ever leave my room, it's amazing I even made it here."

Rias breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, you had me worried."

"Chief, who is this girl?" Kiba asked.

"She's Mika, Shirou's younger Sister." Rias informed.

The others were surprised by that fact but noticed a slight resemblance between the two.

"This is the Sister Shirou spoke about." Akeno said.

"In the flesh." Mika responded.

"But I don't know what she's doing here though." Rias added. "Mika, why are you here? And where's Shirou?" From what Rias knew about Shirou despite their few interactions Shirou treasured Mika's well-being above all else, it made no sense to her that he'd let her come here alone, especially after their last encounter. "Why isn't Shirou with you?"

"He told me to tell you what's going on."

"What do you mean?" Rias asked, needing more information.

"There was trouble today, Big Bro was attacked by a group of Fallen Angels." Mika clarified.

With that news, everyone's eyes widened with shock. "Damn them, I knew this would happen!" Rias spoke up with concern. She then moved in closer to Mika. "Is Shirou alright? Did he survive?"

"I said calm down!" Mika pushed her away. "He's fine, he beat them."

Now everyone was confused. "Wait, your saying Shirou beat a group of Fallen Angels alone?" Akeno asked, having trouble believing it. "I don't see how that could happen."

Mika scoffed. "I know it's hard to believe by people like you all, but Big Bro did beat them, the fact that he is alive and told me to come here is proof of that." Mika had a good point, they all doubted the Fallen Angels would just let Shirou go, so the only way he could still be alive is through defeating them, however that in it of itself didn't make sense to them either. "Anyway, I didn't come here to tell you that."

"Then why did you come here?" Rias asked.

"I'm passing along a message, Asia was taken by one of the Fallen Angels, and Big Bro is gonna storm the place and get her back." Mika explained.

Rias was shocked one again. "What?! Does he have any idea how reckless that is? He's planning on entering an enemy stronghold, filled to the brim with exorcists and enemies that use Holy weapons, and he's going in there alone?!"

Mika smiled and nodded. "That's his style, he always does things this way."

"Don't just smile about this!" Rias frowned. "But I don't understand it, why would he go this far just for Asia? She's practically a stranger to him."

The others were curious about that as well, from what they knew of Shirou, they never thought he'd care enough about someone to risk his life for them after knowing them for such a little amount of time.

"It's only hard to understand for you guys cause you don't know a damn thing about him." Mika retorted. "Didn't you hear what he said before? He said he'll protect Asia no matter what!"

Rias still didn't understand. "All for that?"

Mika then smirked. "Tell me, what's wrong about trying to save a friend?"

* * *

It was really dark…

Shirou had never been more grateful for his Devils. Otherwise, he would have been absolutely blind in the woods on the outskirts of town. He was also grateful that none of the Humans patrols had the same gifts.

It wasn't even the hostile presence that he felt upon entering the territory of the Fallen Angels that told him he was on the right track, it was the increasingly frequent number of Stray Exorcists patrolling through the area. It was to the point he couldn't even risk walking on the ground. He had to resort to hiding behind trees and moving from one to the next when he saw an opening. Fortunately, without wearing his weights his movements were swift enough for him to not be seen.

This was how Shirou got around, using the dark of the night and the best stealth he could manage.

However, as time went on, patrols became increasingly scarce.

It became much easier to get around, but Shirou's Devil instincts would kick in whenever he felt close to danger.

He could see the Fallen Angels' base of operations in the distance, the old Church.

He remembered that Church, it was the same one that he led Asia to the day they first meet. And it was also the Church he went to all the time when he was a kid. Back when he was still a believer he used to go all the time, along with his childhood friend and his family who were extremely religious. Shirou's mother never wanted to go however, and whenever he asked why she would never give an answer.

But now wasn't the time to think back on hazy memories of the past. He was here for a purpose, he had one single goal in mind and he was going to get it no matter what.

All he needs to do now was wait for the right time.

"Pfft… Shirou." Ren spoke coming out from the bush behind Shirou.

"Ren." Shirou whispered. "Okay we're here, now keep your guard up."

"Got it, so what's the plan?" Ren asked.

"Look at the Church." Shirou pointed to the old Church. "There's only one why in and that's the front. I'll sneak in, disintegrate that stupid crow stripper, grab Asia and leave."

"Simply and to the point, but it might be harder than all that. For starters, I'm sensing dozens of Exorcists inside the Church to." Ren pointed out. "And even if you can outrun them, the one's outside will see you and attack you from both sides."

Shirou scratched his chin. "True, if it were just me I could do it, but not while carrying Asia."

"Don't worry, I have something to help with that." Ren then reached into his pocket and brought out a face mask and a plastic grenade. "When you get inside use this."

"An explosive?"

"Not just any explosive, it's a specially made bomb I filled with Senjutsu. It's filled with a Senjutsu mist that if inhaled by Humans, it becomes a deadly poison, it won't kill them but it'll mess them up some much on the inside they won't be able to stand or see right for hours." Ren explained.

Shirou took both. "Ren I know I don't say this often, but I think you're a genius."

"You're right you don't say that often." Ren replied.

"Wait, what's the mask for?"

"Asia of course," Ren noted. "It won't hurt you since you're a Devil, but she'll need a mask to protect herself from it."

"Huh, you'd think I'd have remembered that."

Shirou then placed both in his pocket.

Shirou then got ready to head for the Church. "Alright let's go."

"Actually, you go on without me." Ren didn't move.

Shirou stopped. "What, why?"

"I told you, there are Exorcists outside to and there's only one bomb, you go inside and save Asia. I'll stay out here and take out the ones patrolling around the forest."

Shirou blinked. "That's… Actually a good idea. Okay, we'll do that."

"Oh before that." Ren then reaches into his pocket and takes out a cigarette. "Mind giving me a light?"

Shirou smiles and takes out a lighter, he then lights Ren cigarette. "Hey, won't they see you coming from the smoke?"

Ren shrugged. "I'm a Youkai, my speciality is being able to hide my presence. I could literally come at them with a flashlight and they still wouldn't be able to see me unless I let them."

Shirou nodded. "Cool, remind me to buy you a drink after all this."

Ren smiled and nodded. "I'll hold you to that."

They both got ready to move out.

"One more thing." Ren spoke, this time serious. "Before we do this, are you sure you can get this done?"

Shirou simply smirked. "Ren. What do they all say around here?"

Ren smiled. "If it's one on one, Shirou will win."

"Your damn right." Shirou then made his way to the Church.

Ren then made his way through the forest.

* * *

BANG!

The front doors to the Church exploded inward from the force behind Shirou's kick.

Shirou wanted to try a quieter approach, but right now his anger was building up the closer he got to Raynare.

Right now Shirou was wearing something different than usual. Shirou was now wearing a jet-black leather jacket that reached down to his back, the sleeves stopped at his wrists and the front of the jacket was open. He was wearing a shirt beneath he jacket that was the same colour, the shirt was a short sleeve shirt that had the same length as the jacket, it was fabric and it seemed like it was easy to move around in, it had a V-shaped caller by the neck, and it seemed to be tight enough that it hugged his skin and displayed his muscular figure beneath. On his hands were dark gloves that had metal braces on the knuckles. His pants were also black leather jeans that were slim and without any sag, and they had some chains around the pockets. His shoes were spiked black boots that reached up the bottom of his knee caps and had surps on the back heels.

This was his combat outfit, he wears this only wears it when he goes to a fight and he feels will be a hard one.

That's also why he wasn't wearing his weights this time.

The Church looked just as debilitated and run-down on the inside as you'd expect from a Fallen Angels hideout. Everything was old, broken, ruined, and devoid of any life.

Still… Shirou could feel his Devil instincts warning him of danger. His instincts were more accurate than his sense. Someone else was here.

"I know you're hiding back there!" Shirou called out. "Stop hiding and come out asshole, or I'll come to you!"

CLAP CLAP CLAP

The steady beat of vigorous clapping filled the air, causing Shirou to look to a space behind one of the demolished statues.

A familiar white-haired priest stepped out into the open, with an amused grin on his face. "Bravo! Excellent detection skills, Shirou-kun~!"

"Freed, so you did survive." Shirou said irritated, looking at Freed as nothing but an annoyance. "What are you doing here, don't you have little boys to molest or something?"

"Ha! Meeting you again is like a reunion!" Freed laughed, this time drawing two Swords of Light. "Since bullets don't seem to work, I won't bother with my gun this time. So I just cut and slash you into as many pieces as I can, I so excited just thinking about it~!"

Shirou snorted. "Get real freak, I didn't come here to fight canon fodder like you and I'm low on time so tell me; where's Raynare and where's Asia?"

"OOOOOH! You're here for that Devil loving whore of a sister?" Freed asked spinning his arms and swords around in a theatrical, roulette-like motion before pointing to the altar behind him. "They're both right down those stairs behind me, they lead to the secret underground assembly hall hidden beneath the alter."

"Not so secret if you just tell people, but I do appreciate your honesty, as payment I'll finish you quickly." Shirou cracked his knuckles. "It'll be painful as all hell but maybe you'll live."

"Heh, I'm afraid not~!" Freed smiled like always. "See, I've never met the same Devil twice before! You know, since I'm super strong, I cut Devils into pieces when I first meet them! Once I see them, I cut them up on the spot! I then kiss the corpse and say goodbye! That's how I used to live! But since you completely ruined my style, I'm so lost! That's no good~. It's not good to interfere with my lifestyle~! That's why~! You really piss me off! I hope you will die! Actually die! You trashy Deeeeeeeeeeeevil!"

After showing his joy and sadness, he is in a rage now.

Shirou just stared at him with half-lidded eyes. "…You have problems man."

"Yeah, well I don't think it matters considering I'm going to KILL you right here and now!" Freed said grinning.

Shirou sighed. "What is it with you people that makes you so conceited?" Shirou then scratched the back of his head. "Anyway, as much as I love spending time going back and forth with trash-talk against a mentally deranged priest, I literally have more important things to do, so let's just wrap this up already."

Freed looked amused. "Now aren't you the one whose being conceited, you barely survived the last time we fought," Freed then held up his swords. "And I've already seen what you're made of~!"

This time Shirou was the one amused. "Hehehe…Oh Freed, I'm surprised Raynare's gotten anything done right if she's got a dumbass like you working for her." Shirou mocked.

"What?!" Freed was anger, curious, and a bit confused.

"What you saw was just a taste of what I'm really made of." Shirou smirked. "Now here's the rest. [Promotion: Queen]"

Shirou's declaration brought forth great power once again. After that, he beat the metal braces on his gloves into each other and let out a cocky, Shirou-like grin.

"What the?! What is this?!"

"It's the signal for your last moments alive!"

Shirou charged at Freed.

* * *

 **That's the chapter. And tell me what you all thought about that fight, or more like that one-sided massacre between Shirou and the Fallen Angels, truth be told it took me ages to finally get that all done, I thought about it like this, Shirou beat Raynare back when he was Human, with his weights on and without Boosting. So with the added strength of being a Devil, the increase in speed and power from promoting to Queen and doubling his strength made him too much for them and then some.**

 **Of course, they could have beaten him if they were more skilled, but Shirou has tones of experience fighting multiple opponents by himself and is extremely skilled, while they all seem to be the kind of fighter that only know the basics and usually just fight weak opponents. And as for the end of the fight, Raynare is a coward and afraid of Shirou, plus she really wants Asia's power, so if she thought she could get it at the cost of abandoning the others than she would take it. Not to mention this marked the return of Shirou's strange power that he doesn't know about yet and the awakening of his true Sacred Gear since they both respond to strong emotions like his vengeful wrath.**

 **Anyways Shirou has now invaded the Church to crush Raynare and take back Asia, and next chapter will definitely be the last chapter of the arc. So get ready for Shirou to finally put down the sad stripper Angel, oh and Freed I guess.**

 **And by the way, as for his combat outfit, I wanted to give him one because I felt it was needed and I thought it was a good idea, I felt it was lame how in the canon everyone's fighting clothes were just their student uniforms, they even upgraded them to be durable, fireproof, and have strong resistance, and yet still made them student uniforms and I felt that was a waste, so I gave Shirou some real fighting clothes, which he will wear during important fights or moments.**

 **I also decided to bring Ren along for the ride because I want to give him more screen time and I have something I want to do with him next chapter.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	7. The End Of A Crisis And A New Beginning

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This'll be the last chapter of this arc and hopefully, you enjoy it, now there might be somethings I add for the sake of foreshadowing later events but hopefully, I'll be able to keep them subtle. Anyway, this chapter will be longer than usual. Hope you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **The End Of A Crisis And A New Beginning**

* * *

 _I did it._

 _I was ten years old and I still remember it like it was yesterday._

 _I stood there was an empty look on my face._

 _Mika was only seven years old and was clinging to my back._

 _In my hands was a gun, a pistol that was fired just seconds ago._

 _And at my feet was a man of the age of an adult, he had a bullet in his head and was lying in a pool of his own blood._

 _"Not bad kid." A condescending voice spoke._

 _In front of me was a tall man with a muscular build, he was dressed like a thug and was sitting in a chair._

 _Around him was a group of thugs dressed just as bad as him._

 _We were all inside some ruined building._

 _Everyone one of them was looking at me with cocky smiles on their faces._

 _I hated how they looked down on me, I wanted to slug them, but not right now._

 _"I didn't think you'd actually do it, but you really killed him." The boss said._

 _"So is it a deal?" I asked him._

 _"Yeah, a deal's a deal. You're in the gang. Work hard and you'll get paid, here."_

 _He threw me a small stack of money which I took._

 _I had to kill some guy to get in and so I did._

 _These people, this place, this job, it all made me sick._

 _But I had to do it._

 _Mom and Dad were gone, we survived that place but now have nowhere to go, we wouldn't survive living on the streets._

 _I need to do this, for myself and for Mika._

 _I will survive, no matter what, I will survive._

* * *

Shirou's gauntlet clashed with Freed's blade.

"You son of a bitch! Where the hell did all this power come from?!" Freed yelled while trying to hold his ground.

Shirou grinned. "Well how about this, if you can survive for one minute I'll tell you." Shirou's punch then won the power struggle and pushed Freed back a few feet.

Shirou taunted him using the same words Freed used on him from their last encounter.

Shirou was trying to play on Freed's temper and making his movement wild and uncontrollable.

And fortunately Freed was easy to anger.

"I'll kill you! You Fucking Deviiilllll!" Freed rushed in to try and mutilate Shirou.

SCCHHHHK! SCCHHKKK! SCHHKKK!

Even with his promotion, Shirou still had to admit Freed's speed was pretty impressive. He might be as fast as a Knight like Kiba, and almost as fast as Shirou's own normal speed without his weights. However, against the current Shirou, his speed was easily surpassed. Shirou could effortlessly evade all of Freed's attack without sustaining damage.

Shirou then used his speed to move in and appeared at Freed's right flank, he then struck using his leg like a wipe, Freed couldn't guard in time and was kicked in the abdomen and sent flying into the wall.

"Man first Raynare and now you." Shirou watched Freed struggle to get up. "What is it with you guy's that makes you able to take punishment like that?"

Freed growled. "You'll find that hacking apart Devils like you make this all worth it."

"Then basically, right now you won't get anything from this tonight." Shirou taunted.

Freed roared and went back on the attack, Shirou stood in place, then when Freed was right in front of him, he waived out of the way and Freed ran past him, Shirou then elbowed Freed in the back on the head knocking Freed off his feet.

Freed regained his footing and tried to cut Shirou apart again.

Shirou was sidestepping Freed's blades, avoid his fierce attempts to hack and slash him.

Freed then raised one of his Swords in the air trying to bring it down like a guillotine. Shirou, fortunately, saw it coming at backhanded punched Freed's hand knocking the Sword of Light out of his grip.

Shirou then jumped back and avoid being chopped by the other Sword of Light.

"Would you just hold still so I can kill you!" Freed was getting frustrated by Shirou defiance.

Shirou stared at him with half-lidded eyes. "I know crazy's your thing and all, but seriously has that _ever_ worked?"

They continued their exchange of attacks, Shirou dodged a sideways arc towards his throat, he avoided a thrust aimed at his heart, he sidestepped an upwards slash intended arm his head.

Shirou was waiting for the right moment, then he saw it when Freed thrust his blade forward while standing right in front of Shirou. Shirou then threw a punch with his gauntlet covered arm that connected with Freed's Sword of Light.

"Oh? Trying to break my Sword? Sorry, but it's made of Holy light! A Low-Class Devil like you could never even hope to break my—"

 **[BOOST!]**

CRACK!

The blade of light which made up Freed's Sword was cracked and then shattered into nothing.

Shirou smirked. "Better to be Low-Class than to have no Class like you guys."

Shirou cocked his fist back.

"…Oh, Fuc—" That was all Freed had a chance to say before Shirou's fist crashed into Freed's face and delivered a strong right hook.

Freed rolled with the punch, kicking out his legs to stop himself from being sent flying again and kept his feet planted on the ground.

"…Gugh, why's it always the face—"

He didn't get to finish his sentence as Shirou continued his assault on Freed and smashed his right fist into Freed's gut, the impact was greater because of the metal braces on his gloves. A soft cry of pain escaped Freed before he turned Shirou, trying to say something again.

Shirou landed another blow to Freed's face, which shut him up.

Then another blow on his shoulder.

Shirou relentlessly rained down a storm of punches on Freed. Shirou didn't hesitate, he used every last shred of speed he had in his powered-up state. Unleashing a fast-paced barrage of blows all over the fake Priest's body, with both overwhelming speed and power. "CO! CO! CO! COMBO!"

Face. Head. Chest. Stomach. Abdomen. Arms. Legs. Shoulders. Waist.

Not a single part of Freed's body was spared from Shirou's assault and Shirou didn't slow down for a moment, not giving his opponent to counter, to escape, or even think, He kept attacking intending to end the fight here and now. Freed had no chance to even defend himself.

Shirou then stopped and Freed was in terrible condition. Freed's body was bloody and bruised all over, his eye was swollen. His mouth, nose, and eyes were bleeding. And he was barely able to stand up straight.

Shirou cocked his fist back preparing to end it.

 **[BOOST!]**

"Drop Dead!" Shirou delivered the final blow, smashing his gauntlet in Freed with a fierce uppercut. Knocking Freed into the air, sailing passed the Church and crashing into the window breaking the glass and sending him flying outside.

Shirou breathed heavily from the scuffle he just had. He was satisfied that he was finally done with dealing with Freed, seeing him as more of a nuisance than an actual threat.

Shirou knew though that a reason for that was because of his promotion. He thought for a moment realizing he never asked Rias if promoting had after-effects to the body and wondered what the side-effects were for overusing it if that was the case.

Shirou didn't know what would happen from promoting to Queen twice in one day, but saving Asia took priority, anything else would have to wait.

But before that, he looked to his Sacred Gear and noticed something he felt was off for a while. For starters, the appearance changed. It went from being something of an armored gauntlet like that of a mech to being something of an armored gauntlet that resembled scales, the fingers were spikier, the gauntlet was a darker red, the armor around the hand to the wrist had spikes on both sides pointing outwards, and there were two golden spikes at the end pointing backwards.

Not only the appearance but the abilities seemed different too, the Sacred Gear was supposed to double his power for ten seconds and then need ten seconds cooldown. But against Freed it was different, he felt the power up leave him the moment his attack made contact with Freed.

"Hmm, is this one of those things were the power evolves the more I use it?" Shirou tried to figure this out. "This might be something to look into later. But first I need to save Asia, this can wait."

With that he turned towards the passageway hidden beneath the altar, revealing a winding staircase illuminated by torches at various points along the way. Shirou looked down at the staircase and felt his Devil instincts tell him danger was down there.

Shirou closed his eyes and willed his gauntlet away.

He then started to make his way downstairs.

"Hang on Asia, I'll finally put this to an end." He then clenched his fists. "And I'll also end Raynare."

* * *

BANG!

"RAYNARE, COME OUT!"

Shirou burst into the room at the bottom of the staircase with a loud roar.

What he saw was a room lit by torches, it was filled with Exorcists all who were holding Swords of Light. The room itself was wide with a really high ceiling and at the end was a large staircase going upwards, on top was an altar with a stone cross on the very top of the alter. On the cross was Asia who had been stripped down to almost nothing but a white sheet and standing next to her was Raynare.

"Shirou-san!" Asia cried out while tied to the large stone cross.

"Well look who's here." Raynare in a mocking voice teased. Shirou shot a death glare at the black-winged annoyance that started all this.

"Raynare, I here to finish this!"

"And how so, will you defeat me? Save Asia? Escape with your life?"

"All that and more, you forgot the part where I kill you!" Shirou summoned his Sacred Gear and pointed it at Raynare with narrowed eyes. "I think we both know how this'll end, hand over Asia and I'll kill you softly."

"Oho!" Raynare seemed amused by his threat. "I afraid I'll have to decline, instead you're the one who's going to die!"

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "Why the hell are you so confident, you ran away from me like a bitch twice now!" Shirou reminded. "Do I have to kill you for it to sink in. You. Can't. Beat me!"

"That was before, but now my plan will be complete." Raynare retorted. "Once I gain the power I sought out an inferior Devil like you will be nothing compared to me! I'll have you crushed beneath my feet where you belong."

Shirou snorted. "Right, 'cause we all know how good your plans are."

Raynare twitched a bit. "Moving on, it's too late for you to save this girl anyway, you can have the remains after I'm done."

"Done?" Shirou titled his head. "Done with what? What are you doing?" That was when he noticed, the green energy flowing through the giant cross and the increasing weariness showing on Asia's face. "What's happening to her?!"

"It's quite simple really." Raynare said with a malicious grin, enjoying the current situation. "To put it in words you'll understand, this is a special ritual that can only be done on the full moon. Once it's complete the treasure inside her will belong to me. And you will bear witness to me gaining the power to destroy you and her taking her last feeble breaths."

"Her treasure…" It took a few moments for Shirou to put two and two together, his eyes widening. "You want her Sacred Gear?!"

"That's right." Raynare confirmed. "Once the Sacred Gear, Twilight Healing is in my hands, I will be sure to put it to better use, I'll get back at all those fools who mocked me, I'll be loved!"

Shirou rolled his eyes. "Yeah that's swell, but what happens next. Somehow I get the feeling that losing a Sacred Gear isn't something pleasant."

"True, not for Asia anyway." Raynare smirked. "You see Shirou-kun the removal of a Sacred Gear is a rather forceful process, the nature of a Sacred Gear is something that embeds itself into the current holder. You see, when a person awakens a Sacred Gear the two become one like you have a new internal organ. And if that organ were to be forcibly removed like right now then…"

"They'll die." Shirou realized, gasping. "You bitch! I knew you were low down and jacked up in the head, but your really going to kill an innocent girl for some power!?" Shirou pointed his fist at her and glared. "Are you really that deprived?!"

"Deprived?" Raynare asked teasingly. "I'm only doing exactly what I should do, the life of a measly Human is a small drop of water in the grand scheme of thing. In fact, she should be honored getting to die for the sake of a superior Fallen Angel like me."

"Oh give it up already!" Shirou spat. "No one's buying that "I am greater than thou" crap you keep trying to sell. Besides I won't let you kill her!"

"You won't let me?" Raynare scoffed. "Look at where you are, you can't stop me!"

"Man you really are an idiot."

.

.

.

The insult caught Raynare off guard. Sure all of Shirou's other attempt to insult her worked with near-perfect results, but the mundane insult like "idiot" was something she didn't see coming.

"E-Excuse me?!" And like usual it got under her skin. "What exactly makes you think I'm an idiot."

Shirou sighed. "You really want me to say it? Fine, let's start with this stupid plan of yours."

Raynare sneered. "What's wrong with it?"

"First of all, how long were you planning this?"

"A few months, why?"

"And how long have you been monitoring me?"

"Around the same time."

Shirou face-palmed. "Didn't your superiors tell you that I had some powerful Sacred Gear?"

"Well of course, but it turned out to be false. As I said yours is a worthless Twice Critical."

Shirou just stared at her. "But you only found that out today."

"Yes, that's true." Raynare confirmed.

"So your telling me for months now, you had a device that had the power to steal Sacred Gears and someone who as far as you knew had a powerful Sacred Gear so strong you superiors warned you about it, and yet you never thought to use it on me?"

"Well, I…" Raynare paused realizing the huge oversight he just pointed out.

"I mean if you did, then you'd of had two Sacred Gears and I wouldn't have been in your way, two birds with one stone." Shirou pointed out. "And even if you didn't do that, there were still other ways you could have made this work."

"Huh?" Raynare stared blankly, still not getting it.

"This town is controlled by Devils, I assume you at least knew that."

"Of course I did." Raynare confirmed.

"And you know Devils can revive the dead?"

"Yes, so?"

"Well if you knew all that, why did you try to kill me out in the open? Even though you lost, back when you wanted to kill me you tried it in the middle of town where they would instantly notice you from a mile away and show up, why did you try to recruit me instead or just pretend to and lead me to the Church? You could have ambushed me and we'd be somewhere the Devils couldn't reach you, you'd be safe, you'd have back up, and I'd be dead."

".….." Raynare just stood there, taking all this in.

"Instead however, you fought me out in the open and intended to leave my body right there instead of at least thinking of hiding the corpse, knowing it could be found by a Devil who had the power to bring me back to life for no apparent reason. What else can you call someone like that but an idiot?"

A look of realization and some embarrassment flashed across Raynare's face. "…Wow, It all seems so obvious now that you mention it." Raynare then pinched the bridge of her nose. "Man, I am an idiot."

"You got that right."

"You know, in hindsight I probably could have done a better job at planning this out."

"In the end, all this is on you."

"True, but I don't think it really matters in the end." Raynare turned to Shirou and summoned a Spear of Light. "Since the end result still end with your death!"

She throws her Spear of Light at Shirou, but Shirou unfolds his Devil wings and flies up to dodge it and the priests.

"Now, now, don't be hasty." Shirou reached into his pocket and took out his bomb. "You should know something first."

Raynare narrowed her eyes. "And what's that?"

Shirou smirked. "Devils also don't play by the rules!"

Before anyone could react, Shirou held up the bomb Ren gave him and threw it down towards the floor, once it smashed into the ground it detonated, causing it to explode into huge clouds of smoke. Everyone unlucky enough to take a breath at that moment inhaled huge puffs of smoke, causing them to fall to their knees choking and coughing violently.

"W-What is this…?"

"Is it some kind of poison?"

"I feel like I'm going to die!"

"I can't breath!"

Shirou looked down at all of them arrogantly. _"Worked like a charm, I owe you one Ren."_

"No it's not poison, it's only affecting Humans." Raynare then had a looked of shock and realization on her face. "This can't be. Senjutsu?!"

"Correct." Shirou answered. "I'm actually surprised you knew about that."

"Impossible! how could some worthless Devil like you have access to a deadly power like Senjutsu?!"

Shirou rolled his eyes. "Y'know I'd love to answer all your questions, but we're out of time."

Shirou then flew to the alter at fast speed and first appeared in front of Raynare, he then reached out and grabbed her face with his hand and held it with a strong grip, Shirou finished by throwing her to the side and slamming her into the wall.

Raynare seemed stunned from the damage of Shirou's quick attack, but that would wear off in a short while. Without wasting time, Shirou reached the altar and stood in front of the cross that Asia was chained to.

"Hey Asia, crazy day huh?"

"Sh-Sh-Shirou-san!" Asia cried out, smiling, being the only Human in the room not coughing up a storm since the smoke clouds hadn't reached her yet.

Seeing as how that probably wouldn't last, Shirou brought out the face mask in his pocket and wrapped it around Asia's mouth, now that she couldn't inhale the smoke Shirou decide to free her. "Hang tight, I'll break these off." Thanks to his promotion increasing his already monstrous strength, Shirou ripped apart the chains holding Asia as easy as one would with paper. With nothing to keep her held up, Asia fell into Shirou's arms.

"Shirou-san, why did you come for me?" Asia asked now being held by him.

Shirou smirked. "Didn't I tell you, I always keep my word. I said I wouldn't mind trying being your friend, and a friend wouldn't leave them to die, figured that was a given."

"Eh?" Asia was surprised as Shirou scooped her up in a princess style carry.

"We're friends now, got it. There ain't no way in hell your dying for some black winged prostitute!"

Asia didn't know what to say, all she could do was lay there as tears of happiness fell from her eyes.

Shirou noticed this and cringed. "Come on don't cry now, if you cry while I hold you dressed like that, people will think I'm some kind of creep."

Asia wiped away her tears and smiled, her heart at ease.

Shirou's arms tightened around Asia. "Hold on! I'm getting us out of here!"

Without waiting for confirmation, Shirou leapt from the altar and spread his wings, back in the air he flew past all the Exorcists still on the floor choking on the smoke cloud. Once he reached the doorway he lowered his flight and made his way to the stairs he came up from.

"Sayonara bitches!" Shirou taunted as he made his escape.

Using her wings, Raynare rained herself and flew above the others, she saw the chains around the cross broken and that Shirou along with Asia were gone. "Don't just sit there, I order you all to go after them!" She turned to her forces to see, they were all either unconscious or still writhing in agony, some were even coughing blood.

"Oh God, I can feel my lungs trying to kill me!"

"Is this my blood?"

"Please God, I beg you, mercy!"

An annoyed growl escaped Raynare's throat. "You're all USELESS!"

And so she went after the pair herself.

* * *

Ren was outside still in the woods.

"Shirou probably used the bomb by now." Ren puffed some of the smoke from his cigarette. "Well it's him so I'm sure he's fine."

Ren could sense more Exorcists in the direction he was walking in.

"Heh, another batch of Exorcists."

Ren was unusually excited tonight, and the reason for that was because tonight was a full moon.

Ren's primal wolf instincts as a Wolf Youkai made him more violent and feral during the full moon, though right now since he was fighting against enemies and since no one else was around, there wasn't a problem with that.

Ren then stood a few feet away from three Stray Exorcists. He then stopped hiding his presence and they noticed him.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?!"

The three of them immediately drew their weapons once they saw him.

"What am I doing here?" Ren let out a wild grin and dropped his cigarette, then stepped on it.

Ren then brought out his ears and tail, his hair got messier, and his fangs and claws sharped. Right now Ren looked more wild than when he revealed himself to Shirou before. And not to mention, both his eyes were glowing in the dark and he was letting out killing intent which was greatly intimidating his opponents.

"I'm here to hunt for some prey and looks like I found some." Ren said in a sadistic tone as he approached them.

The Stray Exorcists found themselves paralyzed with fear and unable to stop trembling.

"Something's not right!"

"Who is this guy?!"

"AAAWWWWOOOOOOO!"

Ren howled into the night before pouncing at his newfound prey.

* * *

Back inside the Church. Shirou and Asia were at the main hall, Shirou then placed Asia down by the seating area.

"Wait here a second." Shirou instructed.

Asia then removed her mask after it was safe to breathe.

"Shirou-san, you still haven't told me what you're planning."

"Well for starters, I'm not running," Shirou was determined. "If I don't finish this now she'll just keep coming back. Besides, alone she's nothing to me in a real fight."

Shirou was completely confident he could defeat Raynare in this situation, he just needed her to follow him to this room.

BOOM!

Asia took cover while Shirou stood his ground. The floor beneath the staircase was blown away and there stood Raynare looking completely pissed.

"You are not getting away! This time I'll kill you myself!" The Fallen Angel snapped.

"Hmph… That's what you said all the other times and yet here I am." Shirou then walked up to Asia. "Rest a bit."

"Shir—"

Asia was confused but before she could ask, Shirou used his speed to chop the back of her neck and knock her out.

Raynare raised a brow from watching his actions.

"What the hell was that about?"

"I didn't want her to see what's about to happen." Shirou then laid Asia down on the seating chair line and made sure she wasn't hurt. "She's nice even to those who don't deserve it, that's why she won't want to see me kill you."

Raynare scoffed. "You think I'll die to an inferior Devil like you. I'll finish you and take Twilight Healing, and once the others get here you'll have nowhere to run."

Shirou raised a brow. "Uh, when the others get here?" He repeated confused.

"The fact that you're here means they escaped from you after I did." Raynare clarified. "After I gain Twilight Healing things will go differently from last time."

"Oh hahaha!" Shirou was now genuinely amused. "Escaped? Is that what you think happened haha!"

Raynare glared, irritated at his mockery, though deep down in her heart she had a feeling she knew a different reason on why the others weren't here and as to what happened to them. But she tried to banish those thoughts doing whatever she could to convince herself they weren't true, for the sake of her frame of mind.

"Now then, enough fooling around." Raynare spread her wings. "I'll show you it was a mistake to come here."

"Oh please, I FUCKED cunts tougher than a bitch like you."

"Ufufufufufufufu…" Raynare laughed. "How ridiculous, you seriously expect anyone to believe you lost your virginity?"

"Y'know just because your love life is crap, doesn't mean everyone else's ones are too." She immediately stopped laughing. "Just 'cause you're a bitch whose never been loved you have trouble believing it. I've gotten laid plenty of times, when's the last time somebody even held your hand?"

Shirou taunt at her lack of anyone loving her really struck a nerve.

Raynare was now shaking with hatred. "You invaded my base of operations, brought down all my armed personal, disrupted my ritual and now here you stand still mocking me! Do you have any idea how livid I am that you're not dead?!" Raynare reached the breaking point. "Enough is enough!"

 **Play OST Fairy Tail - Fire Dragon vs Flame God**

Raynare summoned a Spear of Light, and Shirou summoned his gauntlet and spread his wings.

Raynare gripped her Spear of Light and launched herself at Shirou with a battle cry.

In the moment before he moved to dodge. Shirou grinned. _"This never gets old."_

With a hiss of super-speed, the Devil vanished from where he was standing, and Raynare's Spear swung through empty air. The Fallen Angel skidded to a halt, her eyes wide as she looked around. _"What the hell?"_

"Looking for me?"

Raynare's eyes widened and she turned around, her Spear slashing in a horizontal arc at chest height, but Shirou dodged back out of range, narrowly avoiding the gleaming Spear. "Wow you almost got me there." Shirou remarked. "Well _almost._ "

"Hold still and let me kill you!" Raynare lunged, her Spear becoming a blur as she launched a rapid-fire series of slashes and jabs, but Shirou was even faster as he dodged and waived through the attacks with ease, not losing so much as a strand of hair. Finally, he sidestepped a particularly forceful vertical swing and ducked inside Raynare's guard, swinging around behind her and giving her a small push on her back, shoving her away as Shirou straightened up.

"Don't you mock me, you—" Raynare snared as she whirled to face Shirou. A moment later however, she gasped and staggered, clutching at her stomach. "What? When did you… Hit me?"

Shirou shrugged. "In the moment when I was in your guard, right before I stepped around behind you. I'm a little surprised you didn't notice to be honest; I didn't put _that_ much speed behind it."

"Bastard…" Raynare gritted her teeth, tensing before she sprung, her Spear coming around in a decapitating arc. But Shirou flowed smoothly out of the weapons path, ducking in close and swinging an uppercut that cracked into Raynare's jaw, nearly knocking her senseless and landing her flat on her back. The Spear of Light fell out of her hand and faded into particles.

"Okay, you _must_ have seen that one coming, right?" Shirou questioned with a note of amusement in his voice. "I even slowed it down a bit that time."

 _"What… The hell…"_ Raynare gasped for breath as she sat up, rubbing her jaw in an effort to ease the pain from that last blow. _"I can't take another hit like that… Damn it, this damn monster!"_ She forced herself to her feet, swaying unsteadily back and forth. "I don't know how you got all that power." She remarked shakily. "But it doesn't matter, one stab is all I need to end you." Readying herself, she gathered magic in her hands and summoned another Spear of Light.

Shirou smirked, arms hanging loosely at his sides as he waited for his opponent to make her move. Raynare lunged at Shirou with her Spear attempting to run him through, Shirou dodges by narrow-margin and flies upwards and is now in the air, Raynare flies after him and the two of them now in engage in mid-air combat. Shirou is constantly dodging her attacks and Raynare keeps trying to keep up with Shirou's speed.

 **[BOOST!]**

Shirou boosted his power again feeling himself become lighter, while his speed and power increase.

"Y'know, if all I wanted to do was dodge…" Shirou then vanished from where he was as Raynare tried to get him with a horizontal slash only to slash empty space. She looks around to try and find him, only for Shirou to appear behind her and whisper in her ear. "I could dodge forever."

Raynare acted on instinct and immediately slashed behind her back, she sees that she missed again. And now Shirou was in the air at a higher altitude.

Shirou then looked at his Sacred Gear and noticed the green jewel was glowing again, even though he already boosted his power. Shirou then tried something.

 **[BOOST!]**

 _"What the? It worked?"_ Shirou was confused wondering why his gauntlet activated a second time. He could tell his power had doubled again since he could feel his body lighten its weight and he felt his speed and power increase as well. Another way to tell was the current situation, while he was thinking about this Raynare was back on the offensive trying to land a blow, but with Shirou's second boost he could casually dodge her without paying attention. It was like watching a teenager dodging a child's attacks.

Shirou decided to test this and see if it would work again. He avoided being hit by an attack and resisted from attacking while counting silently.

Raynare unaware of any difference whatsoever just kept hopelessly trying to connect with her Spear of Light.

"Eight…" A sideways arc narrowly missed a decapitating strike. "…Nine…" He waived to the right and avoid a thrust aimed at his throat. "Ten." Shirou then flew over Raynare's head and stopped a few inches away from her.

 **[BOOST!]**

Shirou could feel the power coursing through him, once again his Sacred Gear boosted his power. "A third time? I need to think about this."

"Pay attention!" Raynare yelled sick and tired of the way Shirou seemingly forgot the fact that they were fighting. "This time you're finished!"

"Quiet, I'm thinking."

Shirou then shoved her with his right arm and connected to her left elbow, the force behind his seemingly gentle tap knocked her out of the air faster than a speeding bullet and made her crash into the stone statue above the ruined Church alter and shattered it making a cloud of dust and debris. Shirou then felt his power leave him and thought about all he had learned.

 **Music Off**

 _"Strange, before I could only double my power once and then after ten seconds it wore off and need a cooldown time, but now It doesn't need a cooldown time at all, not to mention from what I just saw the boosts are stackable so I can double and the quadruple my power or even beyond that, but the downside seems to be that the boosts go away after I land a hit someone. Is there a way to make it last? I'll need to train with this later. But still this is way different then what she described as Twice Critical. Either my Sacred Gear did evolve and changed its power like how it changed its form or Raynare was_ _mistaken."_

Shirou then noticed Raynare hadn't come to try and attack him yet and looked to where she had landed. "Wait, if I boosted three times then…"

Shirou got his answer as the cloud of dust cleared and he saw Raynare on the floor, she was groaning in pain and covered in dirt and dust, even more than that, her left arm was broken. Shirou's light tap to her shoulder carried enough force from his boosted power to completely break her arm, it was now bent in a painful-looking angle and was bruised purple around the bicep.

Shirou scratched his cheek. "Huh, I just meant to lightly push her, I didn't think the damage would be that much." Shirou then shrugged and slowly descended back to the floor. "Ah, what are ya gonna do?"

Shirou then walked up to the Fallen Raynare and inspected her current state. "As if I needed to say it again. You lose Raynare."

Raynare the coughed and tried to get up but then fell forward and was on her knees while using her right arm to grip her left shoulder. "Y-You monster..."

"Now then, I think time I settle this."

Raynare then clenched her teeth and gritted them, all arrogance and pride vanished and now all she had was hate. "No, No, NO! This isn't true! I refuse to accept this, I spent months of planning and preparations and was a minute away from success. I even lied to my superiors and kept myself completely under the radar this entire operation. All for that power, all for Twilight Healing, all so I could be loved. I'm a supreme Fallen Angel! A SUPERIOR RACE!" Raynare broke down in frustration, her true self now laid bare. "YOU! You're just some Devil trash wielding garbage Sacred Gear, So how? HOW ARE YOU ALWAYS GETTING THE BETTER OF ME?!"

Shirou just stared at her with disgusted. "Pathetic… If I knew this would happen I'd of just killed you sooner."

"Where are the others?!" Raynare continued. "Why aren't they here yet. Did they betray me?!"

"Do you seriously not get it yet. They're not here cause they're dead." Shirou informed.

Raynare's eyes widened. "No that's a lie, they're going to—"

Shirou then reached into his pocket and held something in his hands, he then dropped it in front of Raynare, Raynare looked in shock and horror as she saw that he dropped three black feathers. These feathers were the remains of Dohnaseek, Kalawarner, and Mittelt.

"Rias told me Angels and Devils don't leave bodies behind when they die, but people can tell which Angel was which from their feathers. I don't know how but I'm guessing you can tell these were your friends." Shirou spoke in an uncaring tone.

Raynare looked at the feathers, her eyes filled with fear and realization, she has no more options, her allies were dead, she had no means left to fight, she hadn't been able to even faze Shirou this whole fight. She's lost. Faced with that harsh truth all she could think about was how she could escape.

"Besides, even if they did survive would they really come back here?" Shirou questioned. "After all, you betrayed them first, you grabbed Asia and ran back at the park leaving them to die. Why would they come here to save you after that, and yet you say they betrayed you? That's hypocritical."

Raynare grew more frustrated by his words, but held herself back. Raynare quickly shot forward spreading her wings out and zooming passed Shirou. She flew up and tried to reach the window above the front door. _"I just need to escape! I can survive if I escape!"_ Raynare was desperate and could only think of escaping. However before Shirou could reach the window, Shirou appeared in front of her with a burst of speed. Before she could react, Shirou kneed Raynare in the face, this knocked her back and off course.

Shirou didn't stop there, he reached out and grabbed the base of her wing attached to her back.

"Grit your teeth."

Her eyes widened in horror as she realized the implications of his words. "No! nonononoNONONO!" He tightened his grip and started to pull. "NONONOOO-AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHKKK!"

There was an unpleasant noise, one that was really hard to describe. It was a little like the sound of flesh and sinew being torn apart by bare hands.

But the bloodcurdling shriek Raynare produced, both from the shock and the pain was a good indication of the grotesque image. It felt as if one of her limbs were torn off. Blood was spewing from the small part of her wing still attached to her back.

And with only one wing to keep her aloft, gravity took Raynare, hurling her in a spiralling fall to the unforgiving ground.

CRASH!

Raynare crashed into the floor in the middle of the main hall, dust fill the air of the entire Church.

"Auughhhhff…" Raynare groaned letting out the sound of the pain she was in. With both her left arm broken and her right-wing ripped off, she didn't have the strength to even move at this point.

Shirou descended his flight and landed a few steps in front of her. "I knew you'd try that, every time we fight it always end's with you always running away. But since I saw it coming I stopped you, 'cause honestly I'm tired of this shit, this is where you die. No if's, and, or buts about it."

Raynare could only look up towards him as he began to approach her.

Shirou picked up something on the floor. It's the hilt of the Sword of Light Freed was using before Shirou knocked it out if his hands during their fight. "Why don't I kill you with this?" Shirou then activates it and the blade made of light appears. "Poetic justice at its worst don't you think?" Shirou smirked. "Yeah let's do that."

"N-No…d-don't—" Raynare trembled.

"And don't bother trying to beg for your life." Shirou interrupted. "Your friends tried the same and look what happened."

Raynare knew it, she was at his mercy. The possibility of her demise become very clear.

"Me, here."

Then, a shadow appears from behind the broken wall. The Priest— Freed Zellzan. He came back despite being beaten once although he still seemed injured from his previous fight with Shirou. "Wow! My superior is in serious danger! So what's going to happen now!?"

Shirou narrows his eyes at Freed's sudden appearance. "You're _still_ alive? maybe I'm losing my edge."

Raynare screams at the appearance of the Priest, regain some hope of her survival. "Freed Save me! If you save me, I will give you a reward or anything you want!"

Freed makes a sadistic smile. "Hmm, hmm. I received a wonderful order from an Angel-sama. Eh? So I can have sex with you? To me, having sex with an Angel-sama is like the best honor and it will become a good social status for me."

"I wouldn't recommend that, she'll probably give you herpes." Shirou warned before thinking. "No wait she has no love life, never mind though you could still do better."

"Hmm, maybe but I'll take what I can get." Freed played along.

"Ku… D-Don't fool around and save me!" The Fallen Angel's expression is filled with anger. It also seems like she's in a rush. No, she is in a rush. She probably thinks that, _"A mere Human won't betray me"._ And this was literally her last chance to survive.

"Ararararara, you know that I'm actually serious… I mean, something simple like that should be all right, isn't it, Angel-sama? So it's a no? Is that so? Then I will take my leave now. No matter how you look at it, I'm at a disadvantage, so I will just take off." Freed says it in a funny tone while curling his body.

"Y-You are a Priest, aren't you!? You are supposed to save me! I'm an all-mighty Fallen Angel! I—"

"I don't need a superior who loses to trashy Devils!" Freed yelled completely shooting her hope down. "You are pretty, but you lack plans and you are hard-headed. The only thing you are useful for is masturbation. So just die away already. Well, a Fallen Angel who is abandoned by God won't go to either Heaven or Hell, but goes back to nothing. Maybe the experience of turning into nothing will be helpful? Ah, that's impossible. Since there will be nothing left. It's impossible. So namusan. Wait, that's Buddhism. Ah, I'm a former Christian! I'm such a naughty boy!"

After saying that, he moves his sight elsewhere, as if he has lost interest in Raynare. With that, Raynare put on an expression of despair. She looks miserable. Her only ally left had completely abandon her to her fate. Freed makes a big smile at Shirou. "Shirou-kun. You have such a wonderful ability. I'm getting more interested in you. You are so worthy to kill! You are definitely in my Top 5 for the "Devils I want to kill", so be prepared, okay? Next time we meet, let's have a romantic fight to the death, okay?"

"Hell no, I like girls." Shirou replied almost bored.

Freed is smiling but has an extreme killing intent. A challenge directed at Shirou. No, an advanced notice for killing him. "See ya then! Bye-bye! Remember to brush your teeth!" Freed disappears immediately from the scene after waving his hands at them.

"Freak." Shirou commented. "Though he made the right choice, if he stayed I've killed him too."

Shirou then turns his attention back to Raynare. Her eyes were completely blank and devoid of any will, it was as if she had completely lost the will to even resist.

"Your friends are dead, your plans have fallen to pieces and your only ally left abandon you. Now after all the hype, it's time for the kill."

"Who... Who are you?" Raynare asked in a lifeless tone.

"I go by many names actually. The White Demon, The Sliver Yaksha, The Dark Prince Of Kuoh, The King of Delinquents, Kuoh's Strongest Man, The Unstoppable Brawler, The Hellhound Of The Underworld, but right now, I'm the last person who'll ever see you alive."

Raynare stayed in that single spot on her knees with her head down and Shirou held the Sword of Light in position the strike.

"Now that you're at my mercy, should I tell you the difference between you and I? It's belief." Shirou informed her. "From the beginning I always believed I could defeat you, not just with strength but against anything you threw at me. Even if no one else believed, I did and for me that was enough. But you're different, you don't believe in anyone not even yourself, you tried to steal some else's power because you couldn't rise up on your own, you didn't believe in your superiors so you betrayed them. And you don't even believe in yourself that's why you use others and runaway whenever things get tough."

Raynare doesn't respond.

"And now look at yourself, you loved tormenting others cause you though it was your right as someone stronger than them. And now your beaten, alone, and you've lost everything. Raynare, you're vicious, petty, sadistic, treacherous, vindictive, arrogant, cruel, barbaric, and deceptive. This is what you deserved." Shirou then prepared to thrust.

"Any last words?"

"…" Raynare said nothing at first. She then looked up to him with eyes that were cold and dark and a smile that could send a chill up a man's spine.

"I love you you know, a man after my own heart—"

SSSCHHLLLKK!

BOOOOOM!

The second after she had said that, Shirou thrust the Sword into her chest area and ended her life. As with the other Fallen Angels, her body instantly exploded and all that remained was a large number of black feathers.

"Don't feed me that crap, the only thing you love is power and you just cling to any guy stronger than you." Shirou spoke with hatred in his voice, directed at the now deceased Raynare. Shirou sighed. "It's finally over." He then walked over to the still unconscious Asia.

 _CRECK._

Shirou's body tensed at the sound of the Church doors opening.

Standing in the doorway was the Crimson-haired Rias, escorted on both sides by the white-haired loli Koneko and the prince-like blonde Kiba. Standing behind Rias was the big busted sadist Akeno.

"Shirou, your okay." Rias spoke relieved.

Shirou's eyes widened in confusion, never once expecting the people standing in front of him to be here now. "Rias, the club, what are you two doing here?"

"We came here to help you Shirou-kun." Kiba answered the question.

Shirou blinked. "Help me?…How?"

"From fighting alone of course." Rias said. "Where are the Fallen Angels?"

Shirou awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

"Uh, guys I… I don't know how to say this but, the fights over already."

Now it was their turn to be confused.

"What do you mean over?" Akeno asked.

"…Explain." Koneko spoke.

Shirou groaned. "Look."

He pointed to the pile of black feathers behind him and they all looked and were surprised.

"You won already?" Rias questioned being the most surprised.

"Yep."

"And all the Stray Exorcists?"

"Beaten and in the basement."

"What about the other Fallen Angels?"

Shirou reached into his pocket and brought out another three feathers from the three he killed this morning. The others were shocked once again.

"You defeated all the Fallen Angels and their subordinates single-handedly?" Kiba asked.

Shirou raised a brow. "How do you guys not know this? I sent Mika to tell you what's going on, where is she anyways?"

"Right here!"

Mika's voice called out as she suddenly appeared almost as if from nowhere, she was riding piggyback on Akeno.

"Mika? You're here too?"

"That's right Brobel Peace Prize." Mika hoped off Akeno's back. "I figured I should go as well when they all decided to."

"Why are they here at all?" Shirou questioned. "You just needed to tell them, not bring them."

"Yeah, here's what happened. I told them what you told me, but they didn't believe me."

"They didn't, huh?!" Shirou glared at them, while the ORC members just looked away.

"And then when I told them how you were going to storm the Church and save Asia, they all decide to come here thinking you were gonna die." Mika shrugged. "I told them you didn't need help, but they still come."

"Well gee guys, thanks for the vote of confidence. Really shows how highly you all think of me." Shirou said sarcastically showing his irritation.

"Shirou." Rias stepped forward. "I know that you're strong, I've always known that. But still, charging into an enemy base in reckless no matter how you look at it, I was worried for you, how could I not come here after I found out what you planned to do. Is it wrong to care about your safety?"

Shirou sighed. "Alright, I guess maybe I did go a bit wild back there. But still, I'd appreciate you all not to just immediately assume I'll lose whenever I fight alone."

Rias smiled. "I suppose you have a point."

Akeno also smiled. "I was a little skeptical when Mika said you beat them, but now I just find it amazing."

Kiba smiled too. "She's right, you really are impressive Shirou-kun."

Shirou smirked, glad that they acknowledged his strength.

"…Or maybe they were just weak." Koneko chipped in.

Shirou stopped smirking and shot Koneko a glare and hostile intent while activating the Sword of Light. "Hey, shut yer hole."

Koneko then raised her hands up and took a step back.

"Umm.… Hmm…"

Everyone then turned the sound of a girl's voice that was muffled and groaning. Asia who had finally regained consciousness had sat up and opened her eyes, she then turned to see Shirou and the others.

"Shirou-san?—"

Before Asia could ask, she was tackled by a very happy Mika.

"ASIA!"

Mika embraced Asia in a relieved and worried state of emotion while having a grateful smile on her face, she hugged Asia tight while wrapping her hands around her.

"M-Mika-san?!" Asia was surprised and unprepared for the sudden showing of emotion and not to mention unsure as to the reason why Mika was even here.

"When Big Bro said you were captured, I was so worried about you." Mika said still holding her close. "I thought you might die."

"Hey, guy who just saved her like a badass standing right here." Shirou stepped forward to join them, almost offended.

"Heh, Sorry."

Asia then realized Shirou was here and Raynare was gone, putting two and two together in her mind. "Shirou-san does this mean…-"

"That I curb-stomped Raynare? Yes, I did." Shirou said, then had a warm smile. "It's over now."

Asia felt relief like never before as if a great burden had finally been lifted from her shoulders. Though if she was being honest she wasn't surprised, deep down she knew the moment she saw Shirou appear back at the basement, she knew he would be victorious.

"Now let's get the unholy fuck out of here."

* * *

The mismatched group of teens were all walking through the woods, now having left the Church behind.

They all walked while Shirou was carrying Asia on his back. While they walked Shirou was a bit sluggish and felt inner pain. Asia was healing him with her Twilight Healing while on his back.

"Alright, that enough." Shirou said. "I'm good now."

Asia then stopped healing. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, though that pain came out of nowhere."

"Not really. It's because you overtaxed your body." Rias noted. "From what you've told me, you used the permission I gave you to promote anywhere in town and promoted twice in one day, first this morning and then in the Church where my permission wasn't needed, not to mention both times you used the Queens promotion."

"I'm my defence, the situation warranted the actions."

"Be that as it may. You basically forced your body to work at its maximum abilities and after you were done you immediately did it again without rest." Rias explained. "Even if you are a Devil, your body still retains similar limitations to the way it was when you were Human. When you use that ability, both your magic and your physical body are stretched out like a rubber band. Use it too many times and you will be torn apart."

"Hmph, but that problem will lessen if I train myself, so I'll just train harder."

Rias sighed but smiled nonetheless. "That's the kind of solution you would come up with." Rias then turned to Asia. "Moving on, what do you plan to do with her?"

Shirou and Asia both blinked.

"What do you mean?" Shirou asked.

"Even though you defeated the Fallen Angels, they were a rogue group. But she still can't go back to the Church and I doubt Raynare's superiors would welcome her. And you said you would only shelter her until this matter was dealt with." Rias reminded. "So what are you going to do with her now."

"Rias, it seems your misunderstanding something." Shirou responded. "It's not what _I'm going_ to do." Shirou then looked at Asia. "It's what _she wants_ to do."

"Huh?" Asia blinked. "What I want?"

"Oh come on, do you not remember everything we talked about this morning. What's most important is what you Asia Argento wants," Shirou reminded. "Those stupid crows are gone now and you don't have to worry about the Church or any other of that baggage anymore. You're truly free now, so ask yourself what do you want to do now? It's no one's choice but your own."

Now all eyes were on Asia and she knew she had to answer.

"I-I, well um." Asia muttered nervously. "I want to, to…" Asia then breathed in, and mustered whatever confidence she had to answer. "To stay with you and Mika-san."

 **Play OST Overlord - The 41 Supreme Beings**

The members of the ORC were a little surprised by her declaration, but Mika had a knowing smile on her face.

Shirou didn't say anything. "And why is that?"

"Before I felt like I only had one path in life, in order to keep my faith, was to be a follower of the Church or a follower of the Fallen Angels… but you freed me, Shirou-san. Now the heavy feeling on my heart is gone and I don't feel sad anymore. When you came to save me, I felt so happy because… I finally realized I have a true friend. And I want to make more friends. I want to be able to laugh and cry as well as smile with them. I want to try it all!"

Shirou didn't respond yet, as he could tell she wasn't done.

"I feel as though a whole new world has opened up to me and I no longer have to feel afraid." Asia smiled brightly. "You gave that to me Shirou-san, and I will never forget it."

Asia, Mika and the ORC all waited to hear Shirou's response. Shirou hid his eyes hidden beneath his bangs, and thought of the right words.

For Shirou. For as long as he could remember, the world was split into two different groups. The first was his family, of him and Mika. The second group was everyone else in the world. No matter who they were or how much time had passed, that number didn't change. It was as if a line had formed, one that no one could cross, even friends had a limit on how far they could get. But now before he realized, in the span of a few days, someone had crossed over to his side.

Shirou then had a small smile. "I see, well then let's go home." He then turned back to face Asia. "All three of us."

Asia was then looked at him with surprise and hope. "Y-You mean…?"

Shirou then looked forward and smirked. "Hmph, I said you should do what you want. It'd be a dick move to shoot it down after you said it."

Asia than had tears leaking from her eyes and had a large smile plastered on her face.

Rias and the ORC all smiled as well, feeling some warmth at the heartwarming scene in front of them.

Mika then decided to kill the moment and came over to Shirou with a grin on her face.

"Fess up, you were hoping she'd say that because you wanted her to stay." Mika accused.

Shirou scoffed and looked away. "I will admit no such thing and deny anything of the sort."

"You're Lyiiiinnnngggg!" Mika teased.

"Shut it! And you too!" Shirou then pointed to Rias who looked almost amused.

 **Music Off**

"Well, looks like this story has a happy ending." Rias said.

"Not yet, first we gotta get back to my place and find Asia something to wear." Shirou was refereeing to the fact that Asia still was only dressed a thin white sheet, and then he sighed. "This is the second time I walked home carrying you while you had almost nothing on, here's hoping there won't be a third."

"I'm sorry." Asia apologized.

The three of them then walked in a different direction then rest and intending on returning to the Tsukiharu residence.

"Oh Shirou, there's one last thing I wanted to asked you." Rias called out.

Shirou turned back. "What?"

"Why are you dressed like an edge-lord?"

Rias was refereeing to Shirou's current attire of jet-black clothing that had a threatening look to it.

Shirou's eye twitched a bit. "It's my combat suit, it's something I wear for a tough fight. And I'll thank you not to call me that."

"Sorry." Rias sent a smile.

Shirou and the rest then continued their leave.

Rias and the ORC began to leave as well.

Kiba glanced around the surrounding area and frowned. "Hey, Chief?"

Rias turned to the blonde. "Yes, Yuuto?"

"Don't you think it's strange?"

Rias raised a brow, in curiosity. "Think what's strange?"

"We entered Fallen Angel territory a long while ago, but even after entering we never come across any guards." Kiba explained. "Not even a single Stray Priest or anything. Considering what the Fallen Angels were planning to do, you would think they would've had tighter security."

"…That is odd …How come?" Koneko wondered.

"It makes no sense. By all accounts, this forest should be crawling with Stray Exorcists." Akeno added.

Rias however, shrugged it off. "Regardless, the situation has been resolved. There's no point in worrying about the reason for this. It's probably unimportant."

* * *

Ren Todo was standing by a tree holding his cell-phone close to his ear, a satisfied grin on his mark-less face.

"I see, that's great." Ren spoke on the phone.

"So you saved Asia and everything worked out… Well, I finished up over here to… Yeah, see you tomorrow."

Ren then hung up. After which it is seen that all the Stray Exorcists he found were being him, they all had cuts and open wounds all over their bodies, while Ren didn't have a single scratch.

Ren then re-concealed his ears and tail, also his eyes went back to normal.

"Looks like Shirou won," Ren shrugged. "Well, it was obvious. And as for me, I finally got to let out all those primal urges that I've been building up every full moon."

Ren then took out a tissue and wiped off the blood on his hands.

"Probably be a good idea to get out of here before someone sees me."

Ren then took his leave and exited the forest without anyone knowing of his involvement. But before leaving he turned back once last time to face the Church.

 _"That aura I felt… Who was that?"_

* * *

 **The Next Day…**

Shirou got out of his room, letting out a tired sigh.

Shirou had now recovered from the after-effects from overusing the Queens promotion. He then walked downstairs wearing his casual attire.

To his surprise he saw Rias sitting at the dining room table sipping elegantly from a teacup, with her was Asia dressed in a girls uniform and Mika who was dressed in her normal attire. Shirou then approached them.

Rias then noticed his approach. "Ah Shirou, good morning."

Shirou raised a brow. "Rias, how nice of you to… Show up to my house uninvited… Again."

"Actually I was invited." Rias noted. "By these two."

Now Shirou was surprised. "Wait what? How come?"

"We were just talking about it actually."

"Um, well we…" Asia fidgeted nervously in her seat. "Shirou-san, we wanted to ask Rias-san that…"

"We asked if she could make us Devils like you." Mika said bluntly.

Shirou's eyes widened. "What?!"

"Mika-san." Asia berated.

"Sorry, but it was going to take you forever." Mika shrugged.

"Back up a bit. Why in the name of Satan would you two want that?!" Shirou questioned.

"Be-Because I wanted to be able to repay for everything that you've done for me." Asia answered still nervous.

"And how does this tie into that?"

"I know that in the future you'll have to fight more and you be facing stronger opponents." Asia then became determined. "But I want to be beside you when that day comes, I have the power to heal others so I can help you if you ever need healing, I want to be someone who can help you instead of just burdening you!"

"But if you do this you'll never be able to go near a Church again." Shirou pointed out. "You'll never be able to pray, or read the bible, or even say God's name."

Asia nodded. "I know I'll never be able to go back. I never thought I'd be able to return to the Church to begin with and I won't say I'm not sad. But when I think about not being beside you when you might need my help, it makes me feel worse. So I don't mind being a Devil, as long as I can still be with you and Mika-san I'll be happy."

Shirou was a little surprised by this development, he then turned to Mika. "And what about you, why do you want this?"

"To be honest, I've been considering this for a while now." Mika admitted.

"You what?"

"I made up my mind after last night, the fact was I couldn't do anything. I'm just a weak little girl. I mean you were always strong but after becoming a Devil you're so much stronger, you saved Asia and kicked Fallen Angel ass. And all I could do was go call Rias." Mika said upset with herself.

"But I'm not normal and no one expects you to do what I do." Shirou noted.

"But that's just an excuse." Mika retorted. "I want to do what you do, Asia is important to me too, yet I can't do a thing to help her when trouble comes. And not just her but you too, I want to be able to protect you." Shirou was surprised by Mika's declaration. "Even since we were little all I could do was be protected by you, but if I can gain the power to protect you just like you do for me and all I have to do is become a Devil. Then sign me up."

"Mika." Shirou was still unsure about all this. He then turned to Rias.

"And you're okay with this?"

Rias smiled kindheartedly. "They gave me a very convincing argument and after hearing all that, how can I refuse? But I wanted to wait until you heard them first."

Shirou then took a deep breath. "I can't talk you guys out of this can I?"

Both of them shook their head.

Shirou sighed. "Fine if your that serious about this, then go ahead. I'm cool with it."

They were both relieved, Asia brought her hands together and looked thankful, while Mika made a fist and whispered "yes", Rias then stood up.

"Well then let's begin."

Asia and Mika got out of their seats, stepped in front of Rias and closed their eyes. Rias then took out a Rook and Bishop Evil Piece and placed them in front of the two girls standing before her. A Crimson demonic-power surrounds Rias' body.

"I order, in my name Rias Gremory. You, Asia Argento and you, Mika Tsukiharu. I, resurrect you back to this soil as my servant and have you reborn as Devils. You, my Bishop, and you, my Rook, be delighted with your new life!"

The Crimson Chess pieces glow and go inside Mika and Asia's bodies. At the same time. Rias stops her demonic-power after confirming that the Chess pieces went inside Asia and Mika. Then Rias makes a sigh.

"It's done."

After saying that, Asia and Mika open their eyes and Black leather bat-like wings sprout from their backs.

"It worked!" Asia said relieved.

"So Cooool! I have wings!" Mika marvelled.

Shirou then walked up to Rias. "So is that how it looked when you reincarnated me?"

Rias nodded. "That's right. And like you I choose their pieces based on their abilities, for example the Bishops role is to support the rest of the peerage, her Twilight Healing will be a great help, I already used one of my Bishop Pieces, but I feel confident in use the other one for Asia."

"You have another Bishop?" Shirou asked, not knowing this until now.

"Indeed I do, you'll probably meet in the future."

"Well do you have any other Pawns I should know about?" Shirou questioned. "Or at least do you have anyone you plan on making into a Pawn, 'cause that'll make things easier."

"Yeah I've been curious about that too." Mika chipped in. "If it's the same rules as Chess you should have eight Pawns at most, so why is their only Brokemon?"

Rias smiled and shook her head. "It's because Shirou's my only Pawn, and the only Pawn this peerage will have."

Shirou then blinked. "Whyyyy…?"

"There's a saying like this in the world of Chess. Queens have a value of 9 Pawns. Rooks have a value of 5 Pawns. Knights and Bishops have a value of 3 Pawns each. Like this, there are standard values that also apply to the Evil Pieces. A similar phenomenon happens to those reincarnated. If there are those who can only be reincarnated with 2 Knight pieces, then there are also those who need 2 Rook pieces to be reincarnated. There's also the compatibility with the pieces as well. You can't use 2 separate Pieces to give them different roles, so it's important to think about how to use the pieces. Once you use it, Devils won't be given a new Evil Pieces."

Shirou then started to get where she was going with this. "What, how many Pawns did you use on me?"

"All eight of them." Rias answered.

Asia then placed a hand over her mouth. "All of them, then Shirou-san must be pretty amazing then."

Mika nodded. "Yeah, he's great."

"No! there's nothing great about this." Shirou retorted. "You're saying that this group's entire vanguard consists of just one person. That's a terrible idea, that means that we'll almost always be outnumbered."

Rias kept her smile. "I had no choice, without using all eight Pawns I couldn't resurrect you. Beside after finding out you possessed a Longinus I now see it was well worth it."

"A Long-whatnow?" Shirou raised a brow.

"A Longinus, Shirou." Rias clarified. "Remember when I told you there were many different types of Sacred Gears?"

"Well sure, what about it?"

"Well there was more to it than that. There are types of Sacred Gears with mundane uses while there are others that are suited for even non-humans. They are all sorted on a scale ranging from Low-tier to High-tier, and at the very top, there's a completely separate class altogether. The Longinus-class of 13 Sacred Gears. Sacred Gears so powerful that if completely mastered the user could even kill a God. After observing your abilities for a while now, I've confirmed that you possess one of them and I have a pretty good idea on which one. Summon your Gear."

Shirou was curious so he raised his arm and summoned his Sacred Gear, through his own will, the red gauntlet materialized. He then grasped his arm, brushing along the surface.

"This mark proves it." She said, gesturing to the Dragon-shaped sigil inside the gem mounted on the back of the gauntlet. "This is the Boosted Gear, also known as the Red Dragon Emperors Gauntlet, it can—"

"It doubles my power every ten seconds." Shirou interrupted, surprising Rias. "I realized its power while fighting and I noticed something was off when I somehow destroyed Raynare's arm just by patting her on the shoulder. But really I pretty much overpowered everyone there only after just boosting once or twice."

"Well, most aren't outrageously strong even before they became Devils." Rias noted. "But still the current you may not be able to withstand the strain, but if mastered you could even surpass God or The Devil King. To think you would possess such a legendary treasure." Rias said passively before smiling. "I must truly be lucky to have obtained such a valuable servant."

Shirou rolled his eyes. "Yeah well, don't get too comfortable about it, I only plan on being your servant for the shortest time possible. And I still don't plan on bowing or anything like the others."

Rias nodded, not bothered by his words. "Yes, I'm aware of your feeling on the matter."

"By the, what's the Red Dragon Emperor?"

"The Red Dragon Emperor is the title bestowed upon both the possessor of the Boosted Gear as well as the spirit of the Welsh Dragon sealed inside." Rias explained. "While you must still try your hardest in order to fully master your power, it is a title only you possess as of now."

"Huh, Red Dragon Emperor." Shirou seemed pleased. "That's actually not bad. Okay I'll add that to the last of all my other titles."

"I thought you hated those titled." Mika noted.

"Well most of them, but there are a few that I don't mind and it gets updated like every week." He turned to Rias. "By the way, keep this a secret, the fewer people know the better advantage I'll have when I surprise them."

Rias nodded. "Okay, I'll keep it confidential, after all I somewhat agree."

Shirou then noticed what Asia was wearing. "On an unrelated note, what's with the uniform?"

"It's because she'll be transferring into your class." Rias responded.

Shirou's expression didn't change. "Huh, neat."

Shirou then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pack of cigarettes, flipping it open and shaking one out, picking it up by the filter with his mouth. He returned the pack to his pocket before pulling out a lighter and striking the end with his thumb, calling forth a small flame which he used to light the cigarette.

Shirou took a deep breath, coughing slightly as he exhaled. He then pulled the cigarette out of his mouth so he could talk. "So anyways, I thought I'd…"

And that was when Shirou noticed the stares.

The stares Rias and Asia were giving him.

"What is that?" Rias asked, an oddly stern look on her face.

"What's what?"

"You know." Rias accused, snatching the cigarette out of his mouth and holding it in front of him. "THIS!"

Shirou blinked. "A cigarette, clearly."

"And why, pray-tell do you have these?"

"So I can smoke them, why else?" Then before Rias could react, he snatched it back from her.

Rias crossed her arms. "Well don't! It's bad for you! Not to mention you're underaged!"

Shirou rolled his eyes. "So is drinking and yet I still do that."

"What?!"

Shirou then blinked. "Probably shouldn't have mentioned that."

Rias then snatched the small pack of cigarettes out of his hands. "Do you know how bad these things are for your health? Don't you care about lung cancer? I don't ever want to see these again. It's a bad habit. A dirty habit."

Shirou scoffed. "Okay, that is where I draw the line, this is my house, my roof, and my rules! So if I want to take a smoke, then so-help-me I will take a GODDAMN smoke!"

Rias didn't back down on this. "How long have you been smoking and drinking for that matter?"

Shirou thought for a moment. "About… Four years." Rias' eyes widened. "I only smoke these once a month," Shirou then spoke in a quiet tone. "Don't make me look like a ********* _(Bleep)_ "

Rias then turned to Asia and Mika who were just watching the whole argument up to this point. "You two say something, what do you think about this?"

Asia nodded. "It's true Shirou-san, smoking is very bad for you!"

"Your point?" Shirou asked with half-lidded eyes.

"Smoking is very bad for your lungs!" Asia pointed out. "And you're a Devil, so you'll live with that lung damage longer then a Human would, which makes it so much worse!"

"My lungs are fine!" Shirou argued. "And no one knows my body better than I do, so I know I can handle a few smokes while avoiding cancer, besides I thought you said you'd always be there to heal me, so you could just heal my lungs if they get too damaged."

"Huh I-I um well, um I." Asia fidgeted nervously and couldn't find the words to say. In truth, she wanted to convince Shirou that he shouldn't smoke, but at the same time, she couldn't deny that in the event that if his lungs were damaged she would heal him immediately. Thus she couldn't continue her argument.

Shirou turned to Rias with a grin. "See that? I can make a good argument to."

Rias narrowed her eyes and turned to Mika. "What about you? What's your say on this?"

Mika shrugged. "I'm cool with it."

[What?!] Both Rias and Asia were surprised by her response.

Mika let out a tired sigh. "You really think I didn't already know about this? I've been with Big Bro this whole time, you seriously thought I wouldn't know about his habits. He does it occasionally after all."

"But if you know, then why didn't you try and stop him?" Rias asked.

Mika snorted. "Oh please, first of all: it's like he just said, no one knows his body better then him, so if he says he fine than that's good enough for me and second: Bronii-chan doesn't just do what others tell him, you know that, so even if I told him stop, if he wanted to smoke or drink, then he would. Besides its like he said, if anything does happen to his lungs Asia can fix it." She pointed out.

Rias opened her mouth to argue, but instead let out a sigh. Knowing full-well that continuing this discussion was pointless, both Mika and Asia were no help and Shirou wouldn't listen to her even if she ordered him. Thus she decided to finish this on a later date.

"Very well." She sighed out. "But if you must, then promise me you won't smoke or drink on School grounds. I still have to answer to the Student Council if my servants cause trouble and smoking on campus is forbidden."

Shirou considered that option for a while. "Hmmmm… All right fair enough." Shirou then turned around and headed for the front door. "Anyways I gotta go."

"Go where?" Asia asked.

"To the local tavern. I'm meeting someone there."

"Shirou wait." Shirou was halfway out the door when Rias called out to him. "It's only 2:15."

Shirou looked at her with half-lidded eyes. "I know what time it is, Rias."

He then walked out the door closed it and left.

Rias turned to Mika. "What are the odds he'll follow our agreement?"

Mika just stared at her. "Well let's see, in the whole time you've known him, has he ever not followed through on something after giving his word?"

Rias remembered that and felt a bit better.

* * *

"Another Devil?" Shirou asked.

"Yeah, I definitely sensed one last night." Ren answered.

The two of them were sitting in a booth, inside a tavern. Even though it wasn't the drinking hour there was still a few people besides them who were here and drinking alcohol in the afternoon. Even though they were underaged, after a little _convincing_ the barkeep decided he didn't mind letting the two of them in. And now they were regulars. Shirou and Ren were discussing the events of last nights battle.

"So you're saying there was some other Devil at the Church, hiding in the shadows?"

Ren nodded. "That's what I'm saying, did Rias know about this?"

Shirou shook his head. "Rias showed up last minute, I doubt she'd call someone else for help."

"That's weird because the Devil I sensed was around the same level of power as Rias." Ren noted. "And he was leaking evil intent as if he wasn't happy that you saved Asia."

"Based on all that, there's one possible reason." Shirou narrowed his eyes.

"A new enemy?"

"Yeah."

"Should we tell the others?" Ren suggested.

"No we can't, we don't even know who this guy is so there's no point right now." Shirou pointed out. "Besides to prove it, you'd have to reveal yourself and tell them."

"Yeah, you got a point there." Ren agreed.

After a few moments of silence, Shirou perked up. "Hey, let's stop worrying about it. We already dealt with one problem and whoever that guy was we'll just beat him if he ever comes for a fight."

Ren smiled in agreement. "Yeah, can't argue with that. Okay, let's drink up before our drinks get warm."

They then both picked up their cups of alcohol and start drinking.

"And remember, this rounds on me, I still owe you one." Shirou reminded.

"I'll drink to that." Ren said.

They both tapped their cups into each other and then continued to drink.

And so this incident finally had a happy ending. And everything returned to normal in Kuoh.

* * *

 **That's the chapter. And finally, it's the end of the Fallen Angel arc. Tell me what you all about all that, I know Shirou's fights in this chapter were pretty one-side but Shirou already had the power to beat both Freed and Raynare with just his promotion, so Boosting his power more than once would just be overkill. And because Shirou didn't waste time on his fights he saved Asia and freed her before she died which is something I prefer.**

 **As for Ren, his violent change during a full moon is something I add for him, and it will show up again later.**

 **Now when it came to making Asia and Mika into Devils, Asia was a given but Mika is something I really wanted to do. After all, I plan on making Mika a very important character in the story and also a very strong character so look forward to it. But I also wanted to have Rias wait until Shirou knew about their decision first and understood why rather than just arbitrary deciding it was perfectly fine to just reincarnate them without any tact and expecting Shirou to just be okay with it.**

 **And as for the other Devil that Ren mention who was at the Church. No spoilers but, I'm pretty sure everyone who watched season three of the anime knows who that was.**

 **Anyways, next chapter will commence the start of the Phenex arc. And personally I've really been looking forward to this one.**

 **One more thing, if any of you are interesting in seeing Shirou's character info then you can see it on my main profile.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more be sure to leave a review, if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	8. Peace Disturbed And Coming Trouble

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. We've now started the first chapter of the Phenex Arc, I really can't wait to write this one. The interactions between Shirou and Raiser will be something you won't want to miss. And the fights will be just as good. Hope you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Peace Disturbed And Coming Trouble**

* * *

 _"Come catch me, Big Bro!"_

 _He smiled._

 _Both himself and his younger self in the memory being spoken to._

 _It was one of their rare outings as a family. They could have gone anywhere, but they always chose the same spot down by the river. The atmosphere was so serene._

 _Mom and Dad sat on the grassy hill, a blanket spread out for them to sit on as they watched their two children fondly. His Father had always been the more serious of the two. Even as he watched his children play his smile was nervous like he was imagining the countless worst-case scenarios of how his children could injure themselves, preparing to jump at the moment things got bad._

 _As for his Mother, well…_

 _"Come on Shirou, don't tease your Sister like that~" The woman teased. "If you wanted, you could have caught her whenever you wanted~"_

 _She was always so beautiful. She had Silver hair like Shirou, but her's wasn't wild and spiky rather it was smooth and always flowing with some sort of majesty. Despite getting most of his appearance from his Mother, like her hair and blue eyes, he had his Father's face._

 _"I'm not teasing her!" The younger "Shirou" argued, denying her words. "I'm just making this more fun, if I just catch her now the game would end too quickly!"_

 _"Yeah, but this time I won't let Big Bro catch me~!" The younger "Mika" joined in, the bunny ears of her jacket's hood falling behind her head. She always preferred skirts to shorts. She said it made her look more feminine. She had the same appearance as her Mother, looking like a smaller version of her, though she had her Father's black hair._

 _"Shirou" then catches "Mika" and held her up. After their game was over they returned to their parents._

 _"I knew I'd get her." "Shirou" said pleased._

 _"It was a dumb game anyway." "Mika pouted while looking adorable with her small form._

 _"I'm a man, I need to be fast and strong, that's my job." "Shirou" declared. "Right Dad?"_

 _"That's right." His Father agreed, a mischievous grin breaking his previous nervous tension._

 _"Pffft! Men and their muscles." The Mother scoffed._

 _"Coming from the woman who beat me when we first meet."_

 _"Shirou" gasped. "Mom, is that true?"_

 _"Nooooo." The Silver-haired woman denied. She turned her eyes and tried to avoid eye contact while having a guilty look on her face and judging from everyone's stares, she wasn't fooling anyone. "…It was just a small tap."_

 _"Oh, don't be so modest." Shirou's Father said, poking his wife on the cheek. "You decked me with a strong punch on our first meeting! Knocked me right into the wall! heh made my head spin, your Mother looks like a princess, but she hits like a weight-lifting tomboy."_

 _"Shaddup!" Shirou's Mother puffed her deeply-blushing cheeks, shoving his Father. Shirou's Father was doing his best not to break out laughing._

 _"I think Mom's pretty, even if she is a tomboy." The little Mika said, running up to her parents and tackling/embracing her Mother._

 _"I am not a tomboy!" The woman cried. Her embarrassed face was so adorable._

 _It was too much._

 _[Pfffthahahahaha]_

 _Both Mika and her Father burst into laughter, Shirou's Mother's eyes welled up with tears._

 _"You're all just a bunch of jerks! Auuuuuuu!"_

 _Shirou didn't laugh and patted his Mother's shoulder to comfort her. "It's okay Mom, you're not a tomboy, you're a beautiful woman who's also really strong."_

 _His Mother's eyes sparkled. "Oh, Shirou… Auuuuuu!" She lashed out her arms with inhuman speed, wrapping them around her child and embracing him tightly. "You always know what to say, that's what I love about you! You have my kind heart!"_

 _"Yeah, but he has **my** dashing good looks." Shirou's Father inserted, patting "Shirou" on the head._

 _"I dunno, he seems kinda plain looking to me." "Mika" teased._

 _"Ah shaddup, I'm a Sliver tongued fox and you know it!"_

 _They were blissful days long past, the days he spent with his little Sister Mika, his Mother Mikoto Tsukiharu and his Father Hideki Tsukiharu. Those days felt so close as though they were only yesterday, as if everything afterwards, the next nine years, had just been a dream._

 _"But that wasn't the case…" Shirou thought to himself, looking sadly at his younger counterpart. "Those halcyon days were just the calm before the storm and before I knew it I lost everything." Shirou clenched his fists. "Everything was taken from me."_

 **[Are you dissatisfied? I would have thought you would enjoy seeing such a fond memory.]**

Shirou blinked, looking around to find the source of that unfamiliar voice.

The area surrounding him slowly began to fill with smoke, the scenery burning away like a photograph thrown into a fireplace.

Fireplace…

That seemed to be a fairly apt description for the void Shirou found himself in.

The flames seemed to originate below Shirou's feet, something like seven meteors from his heels and the fire's tongue seemed to stretch endlessly into the air above him.

"What is this, how'd I get here?" Shirou kept his cool and tried to figure this out. That was when Shirou noticed he was speaking with his own voice, with his own physical mouth. Somehow, he had gone from viewing a dream to physically being here… The question still remained, where was here. "Who's out there?! Show yourself!"

He could only barely make out an inhuman silhouette.

 **[Why ask a question you already know the answer to? Do you truly not realize** **it?]**

The flames receded slightly, revealing more details regarding the appearance of the creature. It has big eyes. The colour of its eyes is red, like blood. A jaw that comes up to its ears, with lots of sharp fangs growing out of it. There is a thick horn lining upon its forehead, and the scales that cover its body is red like magma. It has thick arms and legs like those of a gigantic tree. The claws look very sharp and terrifying. More than that, its pair of wings that are spread out make this giant monster look even bigger.

"The fact that I had to ask should answer that." Shirou quipped. "Now answer me, don't make me repeat myself."

The beast actually seemed stunned and subsequently amused by Shirou's disrespectful yet gutsy response.

 **[How very prideful of you, though I cannot discern whether it's from bravery or stupidity. Only a brave man or a fool would speak to a creature as fierce as a Dragon with such disrespect. It seems this time around I have a very interesting partner… Even King Arthur felt a fair amount of dread when I stood before him in his youth.]**

"You're that surprised I'm not afraid?" Shirou asked glaring. "Fearing someone just means you don't believe you can beat them, I don't give a damn if your a Dragon, or if some wannabe King got weak-kneed in front of you. Shirou-Sama fears no one."

This time the Dragon seemed a bit impressed by his defiance.

 **[Hmph… Interesting indeed.]**

"What?"

 **[I can't remember someone showing such confidence in themselves when standing against me in quite some time. Though some may think of it as just arrogance, still it is unexpected.]**

"Think nothing of it. You'll find that when you're with me, things going how you expected them to almost never happens. Besides it might normal for everyone to get tongue-tied and scared shitless when they see a Dragon, but honestly, I had a feeling I see one of you before long. Oh and something else." Shirou then spreads out his Devil Wings and flying upwards, then stops a few feet above the Dragon's head. "I can't stand it when others look down on me, we'll keep talking like this." He said that like it was an order.

 **[You talk big for someone who struggled against mere Humans and low-ranked Fallen Angels]**

"And you talk big for someone who doesn't even have his own body anymore." Shirou retorted surprising the Dragon once again. "That's right I know who you are. You live inside my Sacred Gear. The Red Dragon Emperor, or at least you were until you were sealed inside a weapon."

 **[Your Sacred Gear is a powerful weapon, but one that no one in history has fully mastered. But despite already awakening it you hardly used it in that last battle.]**

"Probably because I didn't need to. You say I struggled but we both know the facts, I thrashed those assholes and I did on my own. Even if I did Boost a few times anyone with eyes could see I could have got the exact same results without Boosting. And that's 'cause I'm strong enough to not depend on it." Shirou then shrugged. "If you're trying to say that no one else could master this thing, then that just means they were losers who were weakling without Boosting dozens of times."

 **[Your pride seems to know no bounds, though I will grant you there is some truth in your words.]**

"Heh, you'll find I know what I'm talking about when it comes to power, Dragon." Shirou then sends him a smirk. "Or should I call you your real name, spirit of the Boosted Gear, Welsh Dragon, Y Ddraig Goch."

To the Dragon, Ddraig's credit, he hid his reaction much better. If he had expected things to go differently from how they currently were, he hid it well.

 **[This is the first time you've heard my voice, yet you a newborn Devil who only recently became aware of your own powers was able to discern my true name, I'm curious as to how.]**

"It actually wasn't as hard as you'd think. And really you kind of dropped a hint yourself. The rest I figured out from a bit of research and some of what I picked up from Rias." Shirou explained.

 **[And how is that?]**

Ddraig asked in a way that would suggest he didn't care, but in truth, he was testing Shirou to see how much information he truly possessed.

"Well, first of all, you appeared before me during a dream I was having and after the dream ended I'm suddenly in some flaming void with a giant talking Dragon. That was obvious considering Rias said the Sacred Gear was possessed by the spirit of a Dragon, and here you are. " Shirou pointed out. "Also Rias called you the spirit of the Welsh Dragon, that name sounded familiar to me so I looked it up and turns out the flag in the place in England called Wales has a Dragon on it, and what would you know it was also a Red Dragon, not just that but the battle standard for King Arthur had one too. After that, I was convinced but the fact that you brought King Arthur pretty much confirmed it. You are the Welsh Dragon, Y Ddraig Goch."

For what felt like the longest time, Ddraig remained silent.

The world around Shirou begun to tremble, filled with a throaty roar.

It was due to the mirth showing on Ddraig's face that Shirou realized the Red Dragon was laughing.

 **[It's been a long time since one of my partners actually figured it out on the first try! Your deductive reasoning has genuinely impressed me, It seems you were telling the truth when you said you always act outside the expectations of others!]**

Shirou titled his head slightly. "You thought I wasn't being serious? I'll admit I'm not known for my honesty, but I never lie when it comes to myself."

 **[I must admit: At first I just considered you to be a naïve youth, but you might be one of my more capable partners, You remind me quite a lot of Belzard.]**

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "Is that a compliment?"

 **[It is, one of the highest ones I can give to most people.]**

Shirou shrugged. "Then I'll take it, don't really know who "Belzard" is, but if even someone like you hypes him up then he must be big."

 **[Just remember these words, as the Red Dragon Emperor your life from hereon will be filled with nothing but battle and your strength will only attract stronger opponents as you grow. If you so desire it my power is your to command and in exchange, you must grow into a warrior far stronger than your current-self.]**

Before Shirou could respond to Ddraig's words, the world around him started to fade.

 **[Until our next meeting, Partner.]**

Then he woke up.

* * *

"Uuuhhhh…"

Shirou then wakes up to see a pair of lips inching closer to him before he could fully open his eyes he finds himself being kissed, upon closer inspection he sees that the one responsible is none other than his younger Sister Mika, who is currently lying next to him on his bed. How long she's been there or why she chose this specific moment to plant a kiss on him, he'll never know.

Mika then pulls away and smiles upon seeing her Brother is now awake. "Good morning, Big Bro."

Shirou wasn't quite sure what to say at the sight of his little Sister just centimetres away from him. Her face a tantalizing distance from his own. And the fact that he just unwantedly shared a kiss with her, without his consent.

"Mika…"

"Yes."

"Whhhyyyyyy!"

"Why what dear Brother?" Mika asked feigning ignorance. "Has something upset you?"

Shirou took a deep breath before asking his next question. "Where do I begin, how about why are you in my bed? And why did you kiss me? Or maybe even, why did you wait for me to wake up before you kissed me?"

Mika grinned. "Well obviously because I wanted to sleep next to you and as for the others, for the record I considered kissing you in your sleep but then you wouldn't feel it, so I decide it would be better to kiss you good morning when you wake up."

Shirou groaned. He honestly didn't know what he thought was worse, the fact that she just openly admitted it or the fact that she said it so casually like it was no big deal.

"You didn't answer my question, why did you want to kiss me in the first place?"

"Well because now that we're both Devils, this is legal and I don't have to hold back." Mika clarified.

"Damn it, Rias!" Shirou cursed Rias for giving his Sister that information. Shirou tried to process the most effective way to explain to his Sister all the things wrong with her this morning. He rubbed his temples, trying to cope with the new migraine piled on top of the previous one. Somehow he felt more tired than when he went to sleep.

 ** _(How very prideful of you, though I cannot discern whether it's from bravery or stupidity.)_**

Ddraig's booming voice seemed to ring in Shirou's ears…

 ** _(As the Red Dragon Emperor your life from hereon will be filled with nothing but battle and your strength will only attract stronger opponents as you grow. If you so desire it my power is your to command and in exchange, you must grow into a warrior far stronger then your current-self.)_**

Shirou didn't know why, but for some reason, he felt those words were a warning of trouble that was fast approaching. He managed to avoid scowling or showing his displeasure, but something must have tipped Mika off for her lewd smile to fade from her face.

"What's wrong?" She didn't ask ' _Is_ something wrong?' or ' _Why_ are you troubled?' She just asked what it was. She _knew_.

That was something about Mika; no matter how hard Shirou tried, he could almost never hide how he's truly feeling from her. The same could be said vice-versa at times. A result of the years they spent together.

Shirou sighed. "It's nothing, alright nothing you need to concern yourself with. Just… Some weird dream, that's all."

"It's clearly not 'nothing' or it wouldn't be bothering you." Mika responded. "What was your dream about?"

"I already told you it doesn't concern you." He argued. "Besides it was just a dream, it was probably nothing anyway."

"But was it 'just a dream' or was it something else?" Mika moved in closer, examining Shirou's face more thoroughly. "I can tell when you're lying."

"Look I'm telling you, don't worry about it." Shirou reassured her, trying to back away only to find himself flat against the wall.

"You're lying!" Mika accused coming closer. She wrapped her arms around his neck preventing him from escaping.

"Okay, you're ah, you're getting kind of close there." Shirou noted uncomfortably as Mika embraced him, in a why were he could shake her off. "Look I don't know what you want me to say, but you're overreacting on this."

"You're lying," Mika repeated once again. Leaning closer hugging her Brother, pressing her breast against his upper body and brushing her lower body against his lower body.

Shirou wanted to remove her from him, but he couldn't think of a way to do so that didn't involve hurting her in some way.

"Tell me the truth."

"Damn it Mika, why is this important to you?" Shirou asked genuinely curious about the reason. Mika was acting usually stubborn about all this, and he wanted to know why.

"Because something's bothering you and I want to know what it is. Don't you know I hate it when you keep things from me?"

"…"

Shirou wanted to tell her it didn't concern her again, but the sad look on her face made him hesitate.

"It's been over a month since I became a Devil and in all that time you've been acting like nothings changed." Mika continued.

Shirou raised a brow. "Well what's wrong with that? Why would I act any different?"

"Because I wanted us to be closer," She answered. "After I became a Devil I thought I'd became a little closer to you and yet I feel like I haven't made any progress. And here I am trying to fix that be sleeping next to you and all you do is lie to me when I know somethings wrong."

Shirou looked away. "…Oh." Shirou honestly didn't know what to say. He didn't realize she felt this way.

"I'm starting to feel like you're getting further away."

"Huh, that's not true." Shirou told his Sister honestly in a caring tone, while looking her in the eye. "I know you don't like it when I'm not honest with you, I hate doing it too. But, it's just that right now, there are a lot of things weighing on my mind. If I'm being real here, I don't even know what I'm gonna do right now so I didn't want to bring it up. But it's not because I didn't want to tell you."

Mika looked up towards him. "So, it's something you're still figuring out?"

Shirou nodded. "Yeah."

Mika sighed. "…What am I doing? Here you are with something bothering you and I'm just making it worse by trying to pry. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Shirou shook his head. "I know you're just worried, but that doesn't bother me, besides you just wanted the truth."

"Um-hmm." Mika then lessened the tightness of her embrace so she could look at him face to face. "So what were you dreaming about?"

Shirou's smile soon faded and in its place was an upset frown, his bangs then covered his eyes. "I dreamt about when we were kids, down by the old river… With Mom and Dad."

Shirou spoke in a quiet tone and it seemed like he struggled to say the last parts.

Mika looked down. "…I-I see."

Mika could only respond with those words, unable to continue on with her questioning, part of her wished she didn't ask. For the two sibling, bringing up the subject of their parents was like stepping on a landmine, because they both know what was beyond the happiness they had back in those days, what the result was and what happened afterwards were times they wished they didn't have to remember.

They both just laid there, now in complete silence, wishing something who come and break the tension that has built up.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhh!"

Thankfully for them their wish was granted, after hearing a convenient squeal of shock that pierced through the air at that moment.

Of course with that, Shirou noticed his was still embracing his little Sister in a way that looked intimate to a third party and now had to try to explain the situation to the (understandably) horrified Asia Argento wearing her student uniform, standing in at the doorway of Shirou's bedroom.

Mika clicked her tongue in displeasure before turning to Asia. "So close… I was sure I could go even further with Big Bro this time, you interrupted me Asia."

Asia covered her mouth, her eyes the size of dinner plates. "I never took you for doing something so-so—!"

"Ah hell no!" Shirou immediately cut her off. "Don't even try it, we didn't even come close to doing that!"

"But we will soon enough, come back after a few minutes Asia." Mika advised. "It's bad manner to watch y'know."

All the tension from before had completely vanished, for better or worse.

"To fall into such depravity…" Asia mourned. "…It is my fault."

"I told you I-wait what did you say?"

"If it is that important to you." Asia said, tears welling up in her eyes as she reached for the helm of her skirt, pulling it down to her ankles and stepped out of it. "Then please take me instead!"

"Wha?" Shirou titled his head slightly.

"Huh?" Even Mika didn't know what to say.

"I let Shirou-san fall into depravity because I didn't keep my eyes on him." Asia cried, immediately removing her vest and student T-shirt, now standing with her pure white undergarments on complete display. "I won't let you commit such a taboo any longer! if an outlet for your unholy acts is important, then please use me instead!" Asia then moved to unhook her bra. Then placing a thumb in her panties and pulls them down her legs and steps out of them.

Shirou and Mika just stared confused, then turned to face each other at the same time.

"Anything?"

"Don't look at me, I played practically every H-game there is and even I've never seen a situation as random as this." Mika confessed.

"What?! How is that even possible?" Shirou questioned.

Mika shrugged. "I guess Asia is a new type of Dere."

Asia then appeared at Shirou other side, laying with him on the bed now completely Naked, she took a hold of Shirou hands and placed it on her breast. "Please let out your desires on me!"

"Wait would you just listen for a second Asia!" Shirou responded pulling his arm away.

Mika placed a hand on her cheek. "Huh, guess the carpet does match the drapes, you should shave down there." Mika said pointing to Asia's forbidden flower. "Most guys prefer it bare." Mika said, in a matter of fact tone.

"Is that true?"

"Shut it! And you too!" Shirou yelled pointing at Mika first and then Asia.

It would be a long time before the situation calmed downed.

It all amounted to a normal, chaotic morning in the Tsukiharu household…

* * *

"So just to make it clear, Asia." Shirou said, like he was instructing. "We will never discuss anything about what happened in there to anyone ever. Understand?"

"Yes, Shirou-san…"

"And just for the record, as I said before nothing even close to what you assumed happened."

"I understand."

"And when you see something you don't at first understand, in the future hear the explanation before you jump to the wrong conclusion and make an ass of yourself."

"I understand." Asia had her head down started to blush.

"And I really don't want you stripping Naked out of nowhere in my room again, 'cause I've already had enough of Rias doing that and I'd prefer—"

"I understand, Shirou-san!" Asia squealed, her face scarlet red.

Both she and Shirou were now dressed in their student uniforms, strolling on the side of the street heading towards their destination: Kuoh Academy.

After the chaotic morning, Shirou had been more than tempted to just go back to sleep. But he knew Asia would just get on his case on how 'it wasn't proper for a student to brazenly skip school so frequently'. And he didn't think she was ready to be on her own in that School of perverts and assholes. Besides he had the strange feeling that going to sleep so soon could lead to him dreaming again about something he didn't want to see.

He'll sleep during class.

"Hey guys!" Ren greeted.

Appearing at Shirou's right side is his friend among a short number, Ren Todo. Ren is also wearing his student uniform. Both Asia and Shirou turn to see the sudden appearance of the cheerful youth.

"Oh hey Ren, where'd you come from?" Shirou greeted.

"Actually I just walked up behind you." Ren informed amused. "As you know, I'm good at sneaking around."

Shirou yawned. "Great."

Ren then noticed the tired look on Shirou's face. "Everything okay? You look like you didn't sleep."

"I slept fine, for the most part." Shirou whispered that last part. "I just had a busy morning after waking up."

"Why what happened?" Ren thought for a moment before asking the obvious. "Mika?"

"Surprising enough, no." Shirou answered.

Ren then wondered what else it could have been, but then notices the scarlet red blush on Asia's face. Ren then looks from Shirou to Asia to Shirou to Asia.

"I get the feeling it was something taken out of context."

"Yep."

"And you had to deal with unnecessary problems born from a misunderstanding?"

"Basically."

"And you'd both prefer not to talk about it, so I should not bring it up."

Shirou then turns to face Ren. "That's why I like hanging out with you more than others Ren, you get the picture quick enough that I don't have to explain it."

Ren raised an eyebrow. "Really, I thought it was I'm the only one who will share a drink with you?"

Shirou stared for a moment, before looking back forward. "…Well, that too."

"Speaking of which." Ren then takes out a small flask. "I got some vodka in here, wanna share it during lunch?"

Before Shirou could answer, Asia spoke up. "You can't!"

They both look at her. "What? Why not?"

"Shirou-san, you shouldn't drink that stuff."

Shirou shrugged. "Sure I should, it's kind of my thing if you hadn't noticed."

Asia shook her head. "No but you shouldn't, you're underaged."

"When has that ever stopped me from anything, ever?" Shirou asked her.

Asia thought on that and realized being underaged literally meant nothing to him. "But still, it's bad for you and it's even worse in the morning."

"Oh come on, remember alcohol is the 'Devils nectar'."

"He's right, you know." Ren added.

Asia wasn't going to give up on this.

"B-But remember, you gave your word to Chief Rias that you wouldn't smoke or drink on campus." She reminded him.

Shirou stopped and remembered for a moment. "Huh, oh yeah I did, didn't I. Crap."

Shirou sighed and turned to Ren. "Sorry man, but a promise a promise,"

Ren shrugged. "Hey, that's life sometimes."

Asia smiled, feeling relief as she believed she was able to convince Shirou to stop his drinking habit. Which is why she was surprised when she saw Shirou still took the flask.

"Why are you—"

"Hey, I said I wouldn't drink on campus, so we'll drink this after school, off-campus." Shirou grinned.

"That's also life sometimes, technically not breaking your word." Ren grinned.

Asia then puffed her cheeks fully irritated at the fact that they only pretend to stop, when instead just decided to use a loophole. Asia wasn't happy that Shirou didn't heed her concerns at all, and tried to reach out and pinch his cheek hard, however, Shirou catches her hand before she can.

"This is your last warning about that." Shirou informed.

Shirou released her hand. And the three of them continued their match to school, though Asia still pouted.

* * *

Everything was finally back to normal.

Shirou was longer in a turf war with the Fallen Angels, The town was no longer a danger zone for the supernatural and both he and Asia were no longer being hunted. Peace had finally returned to Kuoh Town.

Everything was just so normal…

Shirou had forgotten just how utterly boring normal was.

He sat in the seat of his…

What class was this again?

He couldn't quite recall. He only vaguely remembered arriving on campus and remembered less about walking to his class or subsequent classes. He just walked in and laid his head down on his desk, deciding now was a good time for sleep. When the bell rang, he would get up, walk to his next class, take a seat and lay his head down again.

He was reasonably sure he was in the right classes, the main reason being that in each class, he saw both Asia and Ren.

RINGRINGRINGRINGRING

When the final bell rang Shirou looked up from his desk, shook off the drowsiness he felt and looked at his surroundings.

Everyone stood up from their seats, some marching out into the hall while others were still loitering around.

Shirou reached his arms out, leaned back into his chair and stared off into the ceiling.

 _"It's been over a month now since all that fighting, ever since everything's just been so quiet."_ Shirou thought to himself. _"For the most part things seem okay, but with what that Dragon, Ddraig told me, I just can't help but feel that something bad is coming."_ In the midst of his internal monologue, his eyes began to wander across the classroom, turning his attention to the blonde-haired girl closer to the front of the classroom. Chatting away freely with two other females classmates. Shirou felt a bit better after seeing that. _"Well, on the plus side, at least she's fitting in."_

"It's good to see you, Shirou-san." He immediately looked to where the voice came from, noticing Asia had turned his way. She stood up from her seat, said a quick apology to her friends and rushed over to Shirou's desk. "Did you enjoy class?"

Shirou just looked at her as if she hadn't been paying attention at all if it were someone else he'd wonder if they were joking, but he knew Asia was too socially incapable to even do a wisecrack. "If you mean did I enjoy sleeping through class, then yeah just a little."

Asia then titled her head a bit, indicating that she didn't get his sarcasm.

Shirou sighed and decided to change the subject. "Never mind, anyways I told you, you don't have to keep greeting me like that. We live together and yet you still talk to me in that stupid formal tone."

Asia then smiled, looking cheerful and tapping herself on the head. "Sorry, I'm still getting used to it is all. Everything has changed so much, so I'm still trying to figure out how to act normally around friends."

"You're still not getting it. It's not something you have to try. Just do what comes naturally, like you do at home.

"S-Sorry." Asia apologized nervously.

The will and stubbornness that Asia had shown during and after the debacle with Raynares group had all but disappeared, reverting Asia back into her normal, pushover self.

Shirou pinched the bridge of his nose. "And stop apologizing all the time already. I swear the way I have to explain every little detail to you about practically everything really stresses me out."

"Heh, but we all know what's good at dealing with stress."

"Huh?" Both Shirou and Asia look to see who had just entered their conversation. It was braided brunette-haired, female pervert they both knew as Aika Kiryuu who appeared at Shirou's desk standing besides Asia. Asia jumped in surprise, not noticing Aika's presence until just now.

"A-Aika-san?"

"Morning Aika." Shirou greeted.

"It's afternoon Shirou." She then sent a grin towards Asia. "What happened Asia? You keep him up all night?"

Asia then became a blushing stuttering mess. "Ah, Eh? No of course not, I would never disturb Shirou-san!"

"False information, you were pretty disturbing this morning." Shirou noted.

Aika then turned to Asia while flailing her hands. "Ah um, I already apologized for that!"

Aika then narrowed her eyes and had a really perverted smile. "Ooohhhh! So what happened this morning?" Aika then leaned in closer to Asia. "Did you help him with some early morning relief?"

Asia's face was then completely red as she couldn't handle it anymore. "I-I um, I have to go to the clubroom!" She then quickly rushed out.

Now the two of them were alone. Shirou just stares at Aika. "Was that really necessary?"

"Oh come on, of course it was. You know what I'm about." Aika said still smiling.

Shirou then gets up from his seat. "Well regardless, thanks for being her friend."

Aika shook her head. "You don't need to thank me, I like hanging out with her. And it's always fun seeing her reactions."

Shirou shrugged. "Well, have fun with that, just don't break her."

Aika then grinned. "Sure thing, after all, you want to "break her in first" right?"

Shirou just turned to leave. "That'll do girl, that'll do."

Yep, everything was back to normal.

* * *

"Everything okay, Shirou?" Rias asked.

"Huh?"

The day had gone by surprisingly fast.

Before Shirou knew it, he had found himself in the Occult Research Club's meeting room, resting on the couch with a bored look on his face.

"Why wouldn't everything be okay?" Shirou asked, leaning back into his seat.

"Because you like something's bothering you?" Asia pointed out, making a note of Shirou's facial expression.

"I'm just bored right now, okay." Shirou responded not feeling like starting a conversation on the matter, he had just finished yet another contract and after returning he was just sitting there, waiting to leave. "Is it so surprising to you people?"

"It's not that, Shirou-kun." Kiba assured him. "It's just lately you've always been bored whenever we have meetings and normally most Devils would be happier after a successful contract like you did."

Shirou just looked at him with half-lidded eyes. "First of all: You wouldn't be happy either if you saw the freak that summoned me. And secondly: I'm bored because there's nothing to do, all I ever do here is work, I get summoned by weirdo's, I've got no one to fight with and I still don't know what's behind that weird spooky door that's on the first floor."

"I told you not to ask about that first-floor door." Rias said curtly.

"No, you didn't." Shirou argued. "This is the first time I've ever brought it up."

"Well, I meant to!"

"Whatever."

Mika looked up from her handheld gaming system. "Why don't you just fight Saito?"

Shirou thought about her suggestion. As for why Mika was there at all, apparently after becoming Rias's Rook, Mika was obligated to attend a meeting involving the Occult Research Club along with having to become an unofficial member. Though she could only come during after School hours, or on days the school was empty, considering the fact that she wasn't a High School student.

"I would if that were an option." He replied.

"Why isn't it?"

"That's the weird thing actually. I haven't seen Saito all month." Shirou admitted. "I'm sure he's probably still going to school, but we have different classes so I haven't seen him there. But I haven't seen him once outside of school, or on days off. Not even in the usual spots and I've been in a few fights this month yet none of the other delinquents have seen him either."

This information was a little surprising for the rest of the club as well. From what they knew, Saito was something of Shirou's rival and that he was almost as much of a delinquent as Shirou. The fact that he would just quite down suddenly seemed a little sketchy.

"Maybe he decided he didn't want to be a delinquent anymore." Akeno suggested.

Shirou a look of doubt her way. "Somehow I seriously doubt that."

Rias decided to change the topic. "Anyway there is something going on today and the agenda for tonight is pretty straightforward. Tonight, we're going to have Asia take her first solo contract."

Shirou's expression didn't change. "Wow, that's so exciting, look at me leap in excitement."

"We can do without the sarcasm." Rias crossed her arms. "Besides this is something good for her, if she succeeds, Asia will be able to start taking clients."

Shirou sighed. "Well good luck with that. Just hope that she doesn't get as many freaks as I do."

"Oh come now," Rias smiled. "Not all your clients are that bad."

"Oh yeah, then explain last week where we saw those freaks in armor." Shirou argued. "That fact that you can say they weren't freaks with a straight face is what I don't get."

Mika turned to Asia, clearly not know the event they were describing. ".….Explanation?"

"Oh, a little while ago Chief Rias and Shirou-san took me to see what forming a pact is like and we meet a girl who was fully dressed in samurai armor. In fact, even her face was covered so we couldn't see anything beneath her armor." Asia explained.

Mika blinked. "Okay… What did she want?"

"She left her notebook at school and needed help getting it because she was too afraid to go by herself at night." Rias answered.

"What? Then what the hell's the armor for?"

"A personal choice."

"I'm still surprised that she even goes to School." Shirou noted. "With the way she looks, I'm wondering how she hasn't been arrested for disturbing the peace."

"You're overreaction it wasn't that bad." Rias argued.

Shirou scoffed. "Yeah, expect the pact didn't end there. We had to do an extra request for FREE!"

Shirou already hated his job as it is, the fact that he worked for free even once was a huge irritation for him.

"What'd she want you to do next? Act out a scene from the boshin wars?" Mika guessed.

"No worse, we had to help her confess her feeling to some guy." Shirou groaned.

"Personally I thought it was a nice thing to do." Rias said with a smile.

Mika looked at both of them for a second. "I'm guessing this guy wasn't exactly normal either."

"Ah no, here's the kicker. turns out the guy was just as nutty. He showed up wearing Knights armor so we couldn't see what he looked like either and surprisingly enough he immediately said he returned her feelings, he was like the punchline to a bad joke or something." Shirou reminisced uncomfortable.

"Oh jeez, is that the normal for you?" Mika asked with a cringe.

"Enough of that, I'll have you know, I thought they were a great couple and were truly in love." Rias defended them.

"Yeah, well it's just you," Shirou turns to Asia. "Asia what'd you think of them?"

Asia couldn't answer, in truth she also found the two of them to be a bit on the strange side. But she didn't want to talk badly about them, so she said nothing.

"I rest my case."

"Shirou, why can't you just be happy for them?" Rias asked.

"'Cause they don't make sense. For example, why was the girl a Samurai when she was British? And why was the guy a Knight when he was Japanese?"

"How could you tell?" Kiba asked.

"The girl was named Susan which is a British name and she spoke in an abridged Japanese accent. And the guy was named Horie which is a Japanese name and he spoke in a Shakespear lingo." Shirou answered.

"Obviously it means they both appreciate each others culture, which is something else they have in common." Rias suggested. "Those two were a match made in armor."

"More like a match made in the insane asylum." Shirou countered.

Rias sighed. "You know it couldn't hurt to smile every now and then, enjoy these times of peace."

"Yeah, well unlike you guys, I only smile when I'm happy. And the way I see it, not smiling at all is a hell of a lot better than wearing a fake smile and pretending your happy." Shirou's turned away, not realizing words his words steered up some emotions from the others, namely Akeno, Koneko, and Kiba.

"Besides, why do you keep acting like their such an amazing couple when you barely even know them?" Shirou questioned.

"Because…" Rias doesn't answer at first, then she looked out the window with a sad smile. "Because I was touched by how they felt about each other. To be with someone because you truly love them and to have them feel the same way, I've always believed that was a beautiful thing."

Shirou was surprised by her words, he then looked away and thought about it.

 _"…Maybe?"_

Shirou shook his head and thought about something else, hoping the others didn't notice.

"While anyways, I've been here long enough." Shirou then stood up. "Now I have somewhere I need to be."

Shirou headed for the door, Asia called out to him before he left. "Shirou-san! Before you go, promise me you won't go out and drink illegally again!"

Shirou stops as his hand is on the doorknob. "I…Promise…NOTHING!"

Without any more words, Shirou walked right out the door and shut the door behind him.

"…And there he goes." Koneko before biting into a piece of chocolate.

"Which reminds me." Mika puts down her game and stands up. "I should get going too, after all the meetings over."

"Actually Mika, I have something to ask of you." Rias said getting her attention. "You've been my servant for a little while and yet you haven't even attempted to make pacts with summoners, shouldn't you think about starting as well?"

Mika just stared at her. "Rias, the reason Brostar does this stuff is because you told him he'll be able to rise up in rank. But for me personally, I really don't care about that. I'm pretty much fine as long as I'm with him, so I have no reason to do this work."

After saying her piece, Mika forms a magic circle beneath her feet and teleports away.

Rias stay's silent for a little while.

 _"I can never read those two."_

* * *

"I'm home!" Shirou called out as he shut the front door of his house behind him.

Shirou had just gotten back from a normal evening. 'Course a normal evening isn't what it used to be for Shirou lately. Unknown to the others, Shirou didn't just meet up with Ren after school to drink vodka.

Well they did, but that wasn't all.

After Shirou had discovered the true power of his Sacred Gear, the first thing he wanted to do was better understand what it was fully capable of. That's why every day since then, he's been meeting with Ren to do training. Shirou knew that with Ren's powers—Being a Youkai—Would make him a better training partner than fighting scrubs like the delinquents he usually fights and since Ren was able take out those Stray Exorcists Shirou knew he had to be strong.

Apparently Youkai don't just possess Senjutsu, but also a power called Touki, it's the ability to use the life energy inside yourself to enhance all your physical capabilities. That made him an excellent sparring partner, Ren's pure strength was enough to force Shirou to struggle. And even better because Ren could use a barrier made of Senjutsu. Which Rias and the others are unable to sense, allowing them to train completely in secret.

Shirou could feel it, he was much stronger than a month ago. And he got much better at using both the Boosted Gear as well as his own demonic powers. Not to mention its limitations, like how there is a limit of times he can Boost before hitting his operational limit and feeling his insides tear themselves apart. And the fact that there exists a command called Explosion, that can allow Shirou keep the power he built up from Boosting for more than just one hit. Along with the amount of time Explosion lasts depends on how many Boosts he stacked up.

Shirou couldn't help but find something uncomfortable about the ensuing silence.

Mika didn't respond, likely absorbed in whatever series or video game had ensured her focus.

The house was quiet save for the hum of TVs and game consoles upstairs.

It was odd, for some reason right now the house felt a great deal more spacious than normal. Emptier.

He didn't like it.

"Maybe I should get some sleep…" Shirou decided. He couldn't really think of anything else to do, a feeling he should have been used to but now looked upon it as if it had become slightly more alien than the last time he felt it. "…Hopefully, I'll feel better by morning."

Shirou walked upstairs, while heading to his room he passed by Mika's room, just taking a peek inside to determine the girl's status.

The younger Tsukiharu appeared to have passed out in front of the TV, playing one of her handhelds while reruns of her favourite anime played on the TV. She was out cold, having haphazardly left her jacket unzipped to reveal the middle of her bare torso beneath. Her arms and legs were laid haphazardly around her. Drool dripped from the corner of her mouth.

Shirou wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

Though now that he thought about, after leaving for the rest of the day to do his own thing and the fact that Asia was out doing her solo contract, leaving Mika home alone to binge at her own leisure, he probably should have expected this.

Shirou sighed, cautiously entering the room. He knelt beside his sister and arced his arms beneath her back and beneath the back of her knees. lifting her up in bridal carry.

 _"Even though she eats all that crap, it's amazing she's so light, then again this coming from a guy who can bend steel."_ He mused to himself before gently laying Mika in her bed. Shirou then proceeded to drape a sheet over Mika's body to keep her warm.

Mika's sleeping face was completely peaceful, a stark contrast to her normal self when awake.

He sighed, even though she usually caused him a lot of irritation and was enough of a headache to last a lifetime. Seeing her at peace, somehow convinced him that things would be alright.

"Well, sweet dreams of anime and all that stuff." Shirou smiled down at her. "See ya in the morning."

Deciding he had stayed long enough, Shirou made for the door—

"Mmmnnn…..Big Bro…?"

—Freezing with his hand just about to grab the knob.

 **Play OST Gintama - The Last Address**

Shirou turned his head slowly, suddenly having a bad feeling about this.

"Shirou…." Mika sighed out heavily, still fast asleep in her bed.

Shirou released a breath he had been holding in since her heard her voice.

"…Don't go…"

Shirou glanced back at his Sister again, noticing the troubled expression on her face. "Mika…?"

"Please…no…" She whimpered. "…It hurts… please make it stop…."

His eyes widened, dread gripping his heart.

 _"Is she…?"_

"Brother… Where are you? Please make it stop…! Please…! Someone… Anyone… Please help me…! Brother…Brother…Brother…!"

She kept tossing and turning in her sleep, repeating the same word over and over again, each time sounding sadder than the one before.

She was terrified, Shirou knew.

"Brother… Where are you…?"

Shirou subconsciously brushed his hand against the center of his chest, the feeling around his heart becoming tighter and tighter.

He knew _exactly_ what Mika was remembering…

He knew because he had been there on that day…

That day, which was easily the most painful day of both their lives…

Shirou gritted his teeth before softly stepping over to his Sister's side. "Mika…"

"…I can't." Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. "Dad's gone… I can't find Mom… Big Bro…Please…Don't leave me…!"

Without thinking, Shirou reached out and grabbed Mika's hand in his own, squeezing it reassuringly.

It almost made him jump, how quickly and tightly Mika's hand latched onto his own. She held to it to the point where it was almost like her life depended on it.

That only gave him more dread.

Mika's panic seemed to intensify, so Shirou tightened his grip, more and more tightly as Mika's breaths seemed to become more fast-pasted.

She was shaking her head.

 _"It's just a dream, Mika… Snap out of it…"_ Shirou spoke inwardly with worry.

Shirou tightened his grip on her hand to the point were he felt concern he might break it.

"Big Brother….."

Then Mika tightened her grasp right back at him.

It was as if her body had simultaneously received some sort of 'signal'.

Her breathing slowed… The rate at which her body produced sweat also seemed to decrease. The rise and fall of her chest as she inhaled and exhaled became smaller and less pronounced…

She had finally snapped out of her 'episode'.

Still, Shirou knelt beside her, tightly gripping her hand. He stared at her tear-stained face, tempted to give her a reassuring brush on the face and only refraining out of the possibility that it might unintentionally trigger another one of her episodes.

So he sat there and waited.

He waited there for half an hour. Then Mika's grip finally loosened, her arm became limp.

Only then did Shirou view it as a good time to gently lay her hand back down by her side.

Shirou stood upright, carefully stepping away, taking very slow and very soft steps until he was certain he was far enough to keep Mika from waking up with stray noise.

"Goodnight Mika, my Sister." He said more softly and far more tenderly than the first time.

 **Music Off**

Shirou quietly shut the door behind and then proceeded to his own room, shutting his own door behind him as well.

Then, with a solemn gait, Shirou walked over to his own bed and laid down.

For a long time, he didn't say anything. He just stared at the ceiling unable to slip in the sweet embrace of slumber.

The house was too quiet. In a way, he blamed himself for causing Mika's emotional episode. It had been such a long time since the last one and yet now it happened again.

 _"I shouldn't have told her about my dream."_ Shirou inwardly scolded himself. _"After becoming a Devil I can feel the change influencing my emotions a bit. Talking about a dream with Mom and Dad after so long, while she's more emotional, I should have expected it would bring up something like this."_

Shirou sighed.

Despite all that just happened, at least he knew the day was now over.

At least nothing else would be happening tonight.

FLASH!

Or that's what he thought until a large blinding bright light appeared in the corner of his room.

Shirou sat up feeling frustrated by the interrupting. _"Ah, what now?"_

The Gremory group's magic-circle glowing in the center. The magic-circle makes a big glow that lit up the whole room and a person appears from it. It's the silhouette of a girl. A girl with Crimson-hair, Rias Gremory.

"Shirou." Rias had a worried expression.

"Rias?" Shirou was not in a good mood right now. "Seriously, could you stop just showing up in house unannounced."

"There's no time for that, Shirou… Please take me!" Rias said staring him right in the eyes. "Please… Take my virginity right now!"

Rias began to undress. Shirou blinked. "…Have you been drinking?"

STRIP

Rias didn't answer as her skirt hit the floor followed by her shirt. Rias was now standing in full black-laced lingerie. _"Huh, I don't know what's weirder, the fact that Rias is a lingerie girl in her private time or the fact that this is the second time TODAY that a girl stripped herself in my room… Christ, what has happened to my life?"_

After Rias' bra hit the floor revealing her beautiful bosom for all to see, she moved on to the last piece of fabric that covered the last shred of her modestly.

"Seriously Rias, how much did you drink?" Shirou asked now confused.

"I'm not drunk!" Rias corrected him, stepping out of her lingerie and placing them on the pile with the rest of her clothes.

Now Shirou was face to face with the complete Naked form of Rias Gremory. It would have been more of a sight if he hadn't already seen it once before.

"Okay, then next question. What the Hell Rias, what the actual Hell is going on?" Shirou asked, completely out of the loop.

"I've thought about it and this is my only option." Rias then got on the bed. "If there's evidence that I'm ruined then they can't complain."

"Evidence? Ruined? They?" Shirou processed those keywords. "Nope, still lost."

"You have experience with this right?"

"Yeah, plenty."

"Good, then you take the lead, guide me through it."

Shirou then used his arms to form a cross. "Yeah, No. I have no idea what this is, but I not having sex with you. Now explain."

"A…Am I not good enough?" Rias asked with a hurt look.

Shirou pondered that one. "…If I say yes, will you stop?"

"No…. Really?" Rias seemed genuinely surprised and taking a bit of offence on her womanly pride. As if she never once thought someone would tell her she wasn't good enough.

"Are you kidding me, that's what you zoned in on." Shirou said with half-lidded eyes.

Rias shook her head. "Forget it, just hurry up!"

Rias was getting impatient, she crawled closer to and grabbed his hands. "Touch me."

"Rias, No."

"With this, I'll be free."

"I said NO!"

SMACK!

Rias hadn't quite expected Shirou to slap her.

She toppled to the side of the bed, and landed on her front, the was a small red mark on her cheek.

"Bad Rias, bad." Shirou said like he was scolding an animal.

Rias sat up, placing a hand on her cheek. "You could have warned me you were going to slap me! That hurt."

Shirou scoffed. "That's the point, that was the only way I could get you off me and get your attention."

"But I'm a girl! And you're a man! It's different!"

"You're right, I am a man, a man who doesn't take this shit. I'm not like those stupid rom-com protagonists who, when in a situation like this turn into a blushing, stuttering mess and are too big a pussy to say no. When I say no, then I mean No!"

"But isn't this every man's fantasy?" Rias asked.

Shirou snorted. "Heh yeah, weak and unpopular men, maybe?"

Rias then noticed something, Shirou was uncharacteristically angry right now, he wasn't this mad when he left the clubroom, and he was nowhere near this upset the first time she was in his room like this. In fact, now that she fought about it, she's never seen Shirou angry before.

"Shirou… did something happen?"

Shirou was a little caught off-guard by that.

"Never mind that, look I… I'm really not in the mood for this right now." Shirou looked away with an upset expression.

Shirou was still feeling some of the emotion from before, though Rias's sudden appearance and strange desire for sex was a good distraction at first, it wasn't enough. Right now he doesn't have the desire to deal with this.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Rias asked, now concerned.

"We've had this conversation before, though this time I'm still clothed." Shirou reminded her. "And just like then, the answer is no."

"But why?" Rias got closer again. "If something's wrong then tell me, I want to help you!"

Shirou then clicked his tongue. "You're one to talk!"

Rias was taken aback by that response.

"You come here randomly, then you get Naked and say "let's have sex", and now you want to help me? How can you ask me to tell you what's bothering me when you won't do the same? Something's obviously wrong with you otherwise you wouldn't be here. So just tell me already!" Shirou demanded.

Rias processed his words and realized, she was being unfair about wanting answers while hiding from him. And since it's obvious he won't take her virginity, there wasn't much of an alternative.

Rias had her head down and sighed. "…Very well. The truth is—"

FLASH!

That was when another bright light emanating from the corner of the room appeared, also bearing the Gremory family crest.

Rias narrowed her eyes in disappointment. "Tch, I was too late."

"Wait, who's that?"

The person who appears from the magic-circle is a Silver-haired woman. Her clothes look like that of a maid. She is a beautiful woman appearing to be in her early twenties, with silver hair and red eyes. Her hair, which flows all the way down to her back, features a long braid on each side with small blue bows at the ends, while the rest is let down, ending in twin braids. She is wearing a blue and white French maid outfit with long sleeves and a white maid headband over her head, with red lipstick as a cosmetic accessory.

"Are you trying to break the agreement by doing something like this?" The maid says it plainly as if she is astonished.

Rias twitches her eyebrows hearing that. "If I don't go this far, both Otou-sama and Onii-sama won't listen to me right?"

"Both Sirzechs-sama and the master will become sad after they find out that you tried to give your purity to some low-born person like this."

"Ah hey, watch it." Shirou responded irritated. _"Come on, does no one respect privacy, well hopefully this one doesn't decide to strip to."_

"My purity is mine only. What's wrong with giving it to someone whom I acknowledged?" Rias then stepped off the bed and on the floor, upright with a hand on her hip. "Also don't call my servant low-born. Even if it's you, I won't forgive you, Grayfia."

The woman called Grayfia picks up Rias' blouse. "Noted, but you are the next heiress of the House of Gremory, so please don't show your skin to a man recklessly. Even more so if you are in the middle of this situation." She then places the blouse on Rias's shoulders as if she's trying to cover Rias up, though she hasn't really covered anything.

After she finishes picking up Rias' things, Grayfia then looks at Shirou. She then bows her head down.

"How do you do. I'm a maid that serves the House of Gremory. My name is Grayfia. Pleased to make your acquaintance and I'm sorry if we have caused a disturbance."

Shirou's eyebrow twitched. "Yeah? Well if you're so sorry about it then don't do it."

"Apologies, but I was told to bring back Rias Ojou-sama before she caused trouble to the situation."

"That's what I still don't get!" Shirou snapped and got out of bed. "Rias, what's with the maid and the troubles and the situation you both keep talking about?"

Rias looked at him a little sadder than before. "Shirou… You deserve the truth and I promise to tell you, just not yet. But I can say this, I'm sorry I dragged you into this."

Shirou groaned. "I suppose that's as good as it's gonna get."

"'Shirou'?" Grayfia asked, slightly intrigued. "Wait, is this person?"

"Yes, Shirou Tsukiharu. My Pawn. The user of the Boosted Gear." Rias answered.

"…Boosted Gear, the one possessed by the Emperor of Dragons."

Shirou saw Grayfia reaction and thought something was weird about it. Then he realized the problem.

"Wait a minute, that was supposed to be a secret." Shirou then sends Rias a glare. "Rias, why do people know that?"

Rias, like a deer in the headlights, looks away nervous. "Um, well I…"

Grayfia answers the question. "Ojou-sama informed her family quite a while ago. In fact, many in the house of Gremory are aware that her Pawn is the current Red Dragon Emperor."

Rias sent a glare to Grayfia for telling him, though Grayfia didn't seem bothered by it.

"You told them?! That's exactly what I told you not to do!"

"Look, it's not that bad, I just told my family, no one else knows."

"Did you tell them not to tell anyone?"

At that question Rias paused. "…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…Sorry."

Shirou face-palmed.

"Grayfia, let's go back to my room." Rias said, hoping to change the topic and attempting to save face. "I will listen to what you have to say over there. Akeno can also attend, right?"

"The Priestess of Thunder? I don't mind." Grayfia answered. "It's a must for High-Class Devils to have their Queen by their side all the time."

"Very well." Rias then looks back at Shirou. She walks towards him and then.

CHU

Rias's lips touch Shirou's cheek. Shirou didn't resist mainly because he wasn't expecting it, she then gives him a smile "Please forgive me for today with this. I troubled you a lot. Let's meet again in the clubroom tomorrow." She gives a farewell and disappears in the magic-circle together with Grayfia-san.

Shirou was then left alone in his room, still not having a clue as to what just happened.

"Shirou-san!" Asia cheered as she burst through the door. "I completed my first contract all by myself! Isn't that great?!"

Shirou didn't turn back to face her, inside he just had a dumbfounded look on his face.

"…Yeah… That's great."

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. And first of all, I decided to start things off by showing Shirou and Mika's childhood, their happy childhood with their parents. As you saw Mika inherited her appearance from her Mother but her hair colour from her Father, and Shirou was vice-versa. But as you can tell from Shirou's words and Mika's night-terror, those happy days are soon replaced with tragedy. You'll see more of their backstory on that as well as more of their parents later down the line.**

 **And besides that, Shirou had his first talk with Ddraig the Welsh Dragon, it went just as well as you'd expect. Though as for the part about Belzard, he's someone those who read one of the later Arc's in the light novels or who watched season four of the anime would know about. If you don't know him, then don't worry he won't be important for a while.**

 **Back at the clubroom when Shirou and Rias were talking about a summons and helping two freaks in armor. It was a more filler thing that happened in the anime and I didn't want to take the time to write the whole thing so I just had them mention it, if you want to see it, watch it on your own time.**

 **And as for the fact that Shirou can't find Saito, well the reason as to why will be explained a little later, but make no mistake Saito will be an important character in this story.**

 **And yes it's true Shirou is training with Ren. Shirou is the kind of person who trains all the time and if there are ways for him to get stronger then he'll try them and since he found out his friend is a supernatural creature and has the power to fight, then, of course, he'd train with him to get stronger. Now Shirou is much stronger then he was last Arc.**

 **With this chapter we've moved into the Phenex Arc, so get ready next chapter will be the one that most of you have been looking forward to. I know I have. It'll be great.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more then be sure to leave a review, if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	9. Phenex Arrives And Rating Game

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. And for the moment you've been waiting for, and I've been waiting for, this chapter will have the first meeting with Raiser, I've got it all planned out. It'll be an intense confrontation with both sides having a fiery temper, no pun intended. Now then, let's get this chapter started. Hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Phenex Arrives And Rating Game**

* * *

"So I'm confused, what happened?" Ren asked, nothing really following the conversation. "Just the important parts though."

"All right let me explain." Shirou first made sure no one was listening. "Last night, Rias just teleported in my room and asked for sex."

Now Ren did a double-take. "Rias?"

"Yep."

"Our Rias?"

"What other Rias is there?!"

Ren shook his head. "Sorry, sorry. I just really didn't expect that I mean it doesn't sound like her at all."

Shirou stared. "How would you know that? You barely know her."

Ren blinked. "Oh yeah, right."

Shirou sighed. "Anyway, I don't think it was that straight forward. The whole time she seemed desperate and in a hurry."

"Really, how come?"

"I don't know." Shirou frowned. "Like she usually does, she said she'll "explain later" and anything she did say, I didn't get."

"Well, be more specific, what did she say that you got?" Ren asked.

"Well, I heard her talk about how her Brother and Father won't listen to her unless she did that." Shirou recalled.

"So, she has difficulties with her family?"

Shirou shrugged. "I don't know."

Ren then looked liked he realized something. "Wait, when Rias said that, was someone else in the room?"

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Yeah, it was some maid named Grayfia."

"Grayfia… And did she have Silver hair?"

Now Shirou was surprised. "Yeah… How did you know?"

"Shirou, do you know who Rias' Brother is?" Ren asked seriously.

"Of course not." Shirou responded immediately. "Why would I?"

"Because everyone else does, he's known by every Faction." Ren informed him. "He's a powerful Devil like you wouldn't believe and that maid is his Queen."

Shirou was surprised by that piece of information. "Huh, I do remember Rias calling her, 'her Brother's Queen'."

"And she's really strong too. In fact, some say she's the Strongest Woman in the whole Underworld."

That got Shirou's attention. "Shit, really?"

Ren nodded. "It would explain the mass amount of power I've been sensing."

"What'd you mean?"

"Ever since a little while ago, I sensed a huge power by the Old School Building." Ren then looked out the window. "Based on what you told me, It must be Grayfia."

"Wait, how come I can't feel anything?" Shirou asked confused.

"Sensing is my speciality, but for you, if a power is too much higher than your's, you can't feel it entirely. Get closer to the source and then you'll feel something." Ren explained.

"Just out of curiosity, how big is her power?"

Ren thought about a good example. "Think of it light this, if Rias' power can fill an entire classroom, then Grayfia's power can cover the _entire_ campus!"

"Damn."

"Yeah."

"Why didn't I feel it before?"

"Did you try to feel her power?"

"…No. but that still doesn't explain what's going on." Shirou responded. "Why's she here and what's with Rias?"

The two of them were silent for a moment, they had deep expressions on their faces, trying to figure out the answer to this strange problem.

"…I might have a theory." Ren suggested.

"Shoot."

"Well, and I just throwing this out there but." Ren let out a deep breath. "What if, she's trying to break an arranged marriage."

Shirou just stood there, processing Ren's words. "…Go on."

"Well think about it, Rias comes from a High-Class family, more than that she's a noble. Families like that are very involved with their children's affairs and they tend to be very selective about choosing who their children's future suitors are, that's just how they are and most of the time they chose nobles from other High-Class families or noble Households." Ren explained, Shirou listened while nodding. "I'm guessing Rias did that because, whoever she's engaged to, they're someone she doesn't want to marry at all and getting desperate, she thought if she loses her virginity to some other guy then the wedding would be off, that other guy was you."

"So she thought sleeping with me would break her engagement…?" Shirou reasoned, Ren's theory made sense, it made far too much sense for him to ignore and there were things that lined up with all that. "But why me specifically? If any guy would do, then why not Kiba? He'd literally do whatever she told him."

Ren shrugged. "Be honest, Kiba's the total gentlemen knight kind of guy, even if she ordered him, you really think he'd do it." Shirou considered it, then shook his head. "And like you said she was in a hurry, she probably didn't have time to think and you were the first guy that popped in her head."

Shirou thought back to Rias' words before they began.

 _(If there is evidence that I'm ruined, then they can't complain about it.)_

Those words some made sense.

In fact, everything about Ren's theory adds up…

Could it really have been something like an arranged marriage? Who could have driven her to such lengths?

Could there really exist someone in the world that Rias would hate enough to go that far?

Shirou could not help but fall into deep thought about all this…

.

.

.

.

For about five seconds.

"Shirou?"

"Yeah."

"I've been wondering this for a while now but, why's Asia walking behind you with that weird glare on her face?"

"Oh right, that…" Shirou looked behind him, noticing Asia's disapproving gaze as she followed the two of them from what could be considered a spiteful distance. She had her cheeks puffed up adorably with a pouty expression Shirou could only assume was anger or annoyance. "Well, Mika found out what happened last night and told Asia I was having secret sexual passion with Rias, so now Asia's mad and she's not speaking to me. Something about the purity and love or something involving physical relationships."

"You shouldn't be treating your body so carelessly around other girls, Shirou-san!" Asia whined.

"Heh, guess the silent treatment is over and you lasted longer than I thought a whole afternoon."

"Uwaah!"

At one point or another, Shirou coaxed Asia back into the conversation with him and Ren and the two of them carried on as normal and as carefree as always.

* * *

Later that day, Shirou and Asia meet up with Kiba and the three were on their way to the old school building.

"Why are you escorting us again?" Shirou asked.

Kiba gave his usual price-like smile. "Because the Chief said we had an important meeting today and we need to be early."

"Well, what's it about?"

"I'm not sure, she said she'll explain when we get there."

Shirou raised a brow. "And you just went along with it? You didn't ask any questions?"

"No, why would I?" Kiba asked as if the very thought never crossed his mind.

Shirou just stared at him and then groaned. "Never-mind."

Asia then decided to walk at there pace. "Who else is already at the clubroom?"

"Everyone else, after we arrive we can begin." Kiba answered.

Soon the Old School Building was in view.

At that point, Shirou suddenly felt a massive power the was blanketing everything else. It was overwhelming him, like nothing he had ever felt. Neither Rias, the Fallen Angels or even his own Boosted power could even begin to compare to what he was feeling right now. It felt like a sudden blizzard had appeared out of nowhere and it was trying to freeze him to the bone. Shirou had to stop trying to sense the power he was feeling to calm down.

Once that was over he was breathing heavily and still felt a chill go down his spine. He could still feel the power was there, just not sense it.

Kiba and Asia noticed his sudden change in demeanor and were curious as to why.

"Shirou-san?"

"What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing… Let's keep going…" Shirou walked ahead.

The two of them followed.

After entering the building, walking up the stairs to reach the second floor and heading to the clubroom. When they arrived in front of the door, Kiba notices something.

"…For me to finally realize the presence here…"

Kiba puts on a serious face by narrowing his eyes, he then turns to Shirou believing he figured out why Shirou suddenly changed in demeanor, though Shirou looked away, intending to offer no answer on the matter.

They opened the door and walked in through the door.

* * *

The atmosphere within the Occult Research Club's meeting room so tense the moment Shirou, alongside Kiba and Asia stepped through the door, he felt as though an iron weight had dropped on his shoulders. Rias has a very unpleasant frown. Akeno is smiling as usual, but she has a cold vibe. Koneko is sitting on a chair at the corner quietly. It seems like she doesn't want to get involved with others much as possible. Grayfia stood respectfully at the side of Rias opposite of Akeno. The room has an atmosphere where no one is talking.

Shirou looked towards Grayfia.

 _"Grayfia… So the huge power really was her."_

"Oh hey, Big Bro."

"Wait, what?"

Shirou was immediately brought out of his internal monologue when he heard the peppy and upbeat voice that belonged to his little Sister Mika Tsukiharu, who was laying on the couch.

In sharp contrast to the thick tension, Mika laid on the couch opposite to Rias, casually glancing at Shirou from the handheld console in her hands. If she felt even slightly unsettled by the hostile feeling permeating the very floorboards of the room they were in, she hid it _incredibly well_.

 _"But then again, she never was one to read the room."_ Shirou thought to himself. _"And now that I think about it, I didn't feel anything until a few minutes ago and that was when I was trying to."_ Shirou shook his head, waving off the thoughts in his head. "But before any of that, why are you here, Mika?"

"Rias invited me." Mika answered.

"Okay, new question." Shirou turned to Rias. "Why did you invite her? School's not fully out yet."

For a minute or two, Rias didn't respond, she just kept the same unpleasant look on her face, as if something was wrong. Then she let out a deep sigh and opened her mouth to answer. "This is an important meeting and it's a matter that involves my entire Peerage."

"Really? Wait does this have anything to do with last night?" Shirou questioned. "Because honestly, that's kind of the main thing I wanted to ask about."

"Actually it does and since everyone is now here, we can begin." Rias then stood up from her desk. "Before we start the club, there's something I need to tell all of you."

"Ojou-sama, do you want me to explain the situation?"

Rias rejects Grayfia offer by waving her hand. "The truth is—"

She never got to that though.

That was when a magic circle appeared at the center of the room.

However, it was not the familiar Crimson-Red glow of the Gremory family's rose crest that illuminated the room, but a blind Red and Orange like that of a bird. This magic circle also differed in its spiritual appearance. Flames roped of the edges, dancing in the air around the circle, shrouding the entire room in a blanket of heat.

"That crest… It's the Phenex." Kiba gasped.

"Phenex?" Shirou asked, mildly bothered by the heat. "Another Devil family?"

"Oh?" Mika wondered to herself, eyes twinkling with interest as she lowered her handheld and lifted her head from the couch. "It looks like something fun is about to happen."

Then a man appeared inside the magic circle, unharmed by the flames around it. With a soft swing of his arm the flames disappeared.

That was when Shirou was able to get a real good look at him. He looked to be a tall young man in his early 20's with short blond hair and dark blue eyes. His outfit consists of a burgundy blazer with gold embroidery on the right with matching pants and black dress shoes. Underneath his open blazer is a white dress shirt that is not fully buttoned (just one button short), giving a slight view to his chest. Shirou couldn't help but feel he resembled some host from a High-Class host-club.

"It's been a while since Raiser came to the Human's world." The man said, his voice dripping with contempt. He turned and smirked when he laid his eyes on Rias, overlooking or perhaps outright ignoring her look of contempt which matched the one he had worn only moments ago. "But it was more than worth it to be able to meet you again, My lovely Rias."

"What do you want, Raiser?" Rias demanded.

"I knew it may be a bit sudden." The man, Raiser said as he sauntered over to Rias. "But we simply must go the location for the ceremony hall. The date of the ceremony is decided so we need to check it before then." He reached out his hand to grab Rias by the shoulder—

SLAP!

It never made contact.

"Shirou, you?" Rias gasped. She didn't know what she was expecting from him, but she never expected that. Though she expected everyone else would allow her to handle the situation herself.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you not to go touching a woman without asking?" Shirou asked, smirking at Raiser Phenex as he stood between the two of them.

"And didn't anyone ever teach you not to talk down to your superiors?" Raiser spat back. Said Devil was none too pleased with the Silver-haired youth's interference.

"Well, I don't see anyone superior to me around." Shirou answered bluntly. As the very idea that Raiser was superior to him was laughable, "Truth be told, all I see is some asshole dressed like some wannabe host, what's superior about that?" He then turned around shot a sharp look the Devils standing behind him. "And before you guys say anything, I'm already pretty sure you all know who this is and I just don't care what his deal is, so I'm not pretending to respect him."

"And just who do you think you are?" Raiser asked.

Shirou narrowed his eyes at him. "You're supposed to introduce yourself before asking someone's name." Shirou then sent him a smirk. "I thought nobles like you would have better manners than that."

"Are you insulting Raiser?!" Raiser snapped.

"That's really all it takes to insult you?" A taunting smile made its way to Shirou's face. "In that case, you're no different than some spoiled brat."

"You miserable—"

"Raiser-sama." Grayfia interjected sharply, suddenly appearing beside the Devil with her hand tightly wrapped around his arm. "I would most appreciate it if you could retain a civil attitude during discussions here."

What Grayfia said _sounded_ like a request, but Shirou could tell from her very presence that it was an absolute command. For a brief moment Raiser looked as though he might protest… Then he sighed.

"Very well." Raiser said. "In spite of this bothersome brats behaviour, Raiser shall temper my righteous anger."

"Hmph… More like self-righteous anger," Shirou argued with a mutter. He thought about continuing but then a hand touched his shoulder, squeezing it tightly.

"I would like to ask the same of _you_ , Tsukiharu- _sama_." Grayfia said coldly, her gaze feeling as though it was trying to pierce his very soul.

Shirou scoffed.

SLAP!

And slapped Grayfia's hand off his shoulder, minus Mika, everyone in the room including Raiser was shocked and filled with disbelief, amazed and surprised that anyone would have the nerve to slap away Grayfia's hand.

Shirou for his part, knew just how much stronger Grayfia was than him and knew it was better not to start a fight here. But even so he didn't let himself intimidated, he knew that if he did then he wouldn't be able to do a thing and he knew that if you let yourself be intimidated people would look down on you, also since he felt this presence just a little while ago, he was able to wrap his head around it this time.

"Don't worry, I've said my piece." Shirou told Grayfia with a rebellious face, Grayfia didn't expect that response, but nonetheless she chose to let it be. Shirou then turned to Rias. "Rias, who the hell is this guy anyway?"

"Huh?" Raiser actually looked affronted by Shirou's words. "Rias, you haven't mentioned Raiser to your servants? I mean, are there guys who don't know Raiser? A reincarnated Devil? Even so."

 _"Pretentious prick."_ Shirou thought, deadpan.

"I didn't tell him because there was no need." Rias said harshly.

"Oh my, harsh like always. Hahaha…" Raiser was laughing, but his smile was strained.

"This person is Raiser Phenex-sama. He's a pure-blood High-Class Devil, and the third son of the House of Phoenix." Grayfia explains, she paused as if to give it time to let it all sink. "And also, in relation to Rias-sama…"

Shirou's eyes widened in recognition. _"I think I know where this is going… And if so then… Ren, how did he see it all come together?"_

"And he is the husband-to-be of the next heiress of the House of Gremory."

Shirou looks from Rias to Raiser to Rias to Raiser. _"Okay…Now I understand last night."_

"Oh. My. Goodness." By this point, Mika had sat up completely in her seat, playing very close attention to the events that played out,. While avoiding saying "God" as it would cause her pain.

"He's a flaming chicken!"

.

.

.

Thankfully, Grayfia defused any potential conflict by slightly pinching Mika's face.

"Ow!"

* * *

It had taken a few moments to get everything settled down…

Perhaps "settled down" weren't the right words.

The tension in the air was multiple times higher than it was when Shirou first entered.

Raiser continued his unwanted advances towards Rias and Rias kept staring at him like she was about to commit murder at any second. Kiba, Akeno, and Koneko looked as though they were more than willing to help hide the body.

Only Asia, who was too intimidated to act displeased; Mika, who was viewing the events play out acted as if they were some sort of interesting game from her sitting position; and Shirou, who was still trying to figure out what the hell all this meant and for that matter why he had to even be here. He just leaned against the wall, also watching the events unfold albeit with significantly less interest than his Sister.

The only person who was completely and honestly calm and invested was Grayfia.

Raiser calmly sipped on his tea.

"The tea made by Rias' Queen is superb." Raiser said coolly in sharp contrast to the hostile environment

"Thank you very much, sir." Akeno said with a polite smile, and polite was all it was.

Shirou saw it on the faces of the other members of Rias' Peerage. They utterly detested Raiser's presence. Whether it was out of sympathy for Rias or for personal reasons, he couldn't even hazard a guess. It was a deep disdain though.

Of course, it could of have more to do with how handsy Raiser was getting, draping his hand over Rias's shoulder and more inappropriately brushing his other hand against her thigh, clearly intending to cop a feel.

 _"How disgusting."_ Shirou thought to himself. _"I don't give a damn about engagements or whatever, but this guy is just a creep…"_ If it had been someone Shirou truly cared about, like Asia, Mika, or Aika, Shirou wouldn't have hesitated to break the pervert in half.

"Are you angry, Shirou-san?" Asia asked, worry clear in her eyes.

Shirou didn't turn to face her, instead kept his eyes on the revolting display in front of him. "Yeah, I am." Even if he didn't normally show negative emotions around her, he chose to be completely honest here. After all why hide what almost everyone else was feeling as well. And unlike the rest, he wasn't angry simply because it was Rias there, he was angry because Raiser's condescending attitude was something that always lit a fire in his gut.

"Stop it already!" Rias finally snapped, putting an end to the awkward exchange as she stood up abruptly "Raiser! I told you before! I don't have any intentions of ever marrying you!"

Raiser looks at her outburst amused.

"Yes, Raiser heard that before. But my dear Rias, that won't do, you know? Raiser thinks that the situation of your household is quite serious."

Rias stared at Raiser with distaste. "That's none of your concern! If I'm the next heiress for the House of Gremory, then I will choose who will become my husband! My Father, Brother and everyone in the clan are rushing it! Also it was a promise that I will be free until I graduate from university of the Human world!"

"That's right. You will basically be free." Raiser said as if taunting her. "You can go to college and you can do whatever you like with your servants. But your Father and Sirzechs-sama are worried. They are afraid that your household will become extinct. We lost a great number of Pure-Blood Devils in the last war. Even if the war has ended, our rivalry with the Fallen Angels and God hasn't ended yet. It's not rare for the successors of Pure-Blood Devil to get killed in the worthless battle against them, which leads to the household becoming extinct. So for a Pure-Blood Devil that are also happens to be a High-class Devil, getting together would be the obvious solution for the forces of Devils. A Pure-Blood High-Class Devil. Even you know that these children will be important from now on, right?"

Shirou sneered silently. _"Your kidding, it just more of that elitist bullshit… Arranged marriages to keep those stupid High-Class purist snobs happy at others expense. It's hardly a real reason and just more of personal desire. How disgusting"_

"Shouldn't you step in?" Shirou looked down at his sister. "Now's the perfect time for the Brotagonist to shine."

"Huh?"

Raiser continues to talk after drinking the tea. "The newly produced Devils. The ones like your servants, the reincarnated Devils, are expanding in terms of strength but that would make us, the High-class Devils with old history background, lose our place. There are old nobles who gets close to the reincarnated Devils because they are very powerful. Well, that might be alright. The newly produced Devils are also important for our future. But we can't allow the Pure-Blood Devils to go extinct right? You and Raiser were chosen in order to prevent the Pure-Bloods from going extinct. Raiser's house is safe because Raiser has his two older brothers. But there are only two siblings in your house. And your brother is someone who left the house. Then there would only be you, Rias, who can inherit the House of Gremory. If you don't take a husband, the House of Gremory will go extinct in your generation. Are you trying to crush the household that has been continuing for a very long time? Because of the past war, there is not even half the number of Devils who were referred as "72 pillars". This marriage has the future of the Devils on the line."

Shirou wondered about that last part. _"What are the 72 pillars? WHO are the 72 pillars?… Questions for later."_

"Aren't you going to step in?" Mika asked her brother, her tone clearly leading.

"Not yet, just need to wait for the right moment." Shirou responded quietly.

Shirou kept his eyes focused on the two High-Class Devils in front of him, making sure he was ready at any moment. If the situation became one where a fight broke out, he wanted to be sure he could make the first move, which is why he was now really glad he decided not to wear his weights today.

"I'm not going to crush my house. And I am willing to take a husband."

Hearing Rias say that, Raiser makes a big smile. "Oh, to be expected from Rias! Then let's—"

"But I won't marry you, Raiser." Rias interrupted, with an unwavering expression. "I will marry the one I acknowledge. Even the Devils from the old noble houses have the right to choose."

Hearing that, Raiser suddenly becomes unpleasant. His eyes become sharper and he even clicked his tongue.

"…You know, Rias. Raiser is also a Devil who carries the name of House of Phoenix behind Raiser. Raiser can't let that name get tarnished." Raiser said getting uncomfortably close to Rias. "Raiser didn't even want to come to a small old building like this in the Human world. Rather, Raiser doesn't like the Human world that much. One way or another Raiser _will_ take you back to the underworld, even if Raiser has to burn all of your servants."

FLAME!

There are flames around Raiser. There are small bits of fire around the room.

"Is now the right time?" Mika asked, turning to see her Brother was no longer beside her, instead Shirou was making his way between Rias and Raiser, and then stood in between them. Without either of them noticing, Shirou walked in between the two of them and reached out gripping Raiser's arm.

"And you seriously think we'll just sit back at let you do that?" Shirou asked with contempt. "You obviously don't get out much."

"Shirou…?" Rias was surprised that he stepped in a second time. "What are you doing?"

Mika looked really excited now. _"Haho, this is gonna be great, wish a could record it."_

"What indeed, this is the second you've interfered brat! _Who_ do you think you are laying your hands on Raiser?!" Raiser asked, his contempt more obvious as flames began to crack to life around his feet, burning wings spreading from his back.

 _CRACK!_

Raiser tried to break his arm out of Shirou's grip, but Shirou increased the strength behind his grip of his hand down Raiser's arm tighter, those in the room could hear a cracking sound emanating from Raiser's wrist, Raiser was starting feel some pain.

Shirou glared. "The name's Shirou Tsukiharu, I'm a Pawn and I'm _Your_ superior." Shirou then raised his free arm. "And _this_ is my fist."

It was the sheer audacity of calling his attack before making it that made Raiser drop his guard in confusion.

In that second, Shirou struck, his left arm connecting with Raiser's jaw with an audible _crack_. The older Devil may as well weighed as much as a piece of paper with how easily he was sent flying into the opposite wall.

Akeno, Kiba, and Koneko were all left gawking while Rias was too stunned to even make a similar expression. Asia looked on, uneasy, while Mika was clapping her hands approvingly.

Given how intense the situation had been a second ago, the awkward silence that followed felt like an odd relief.

"Augh…" Raiser extricated himself from the floor, leaning against the wall for support. A trail of blood showed on the side of his head, but Shirou couldn't see any actual injury on him. He swayed slightly, regaining his bearing. He reached a hand to his forehead, tensing well he felt the sticky, wet blood staining his face. He paused for a moment, then locked eyes with Shirou, his expression contorting into one of almost unimaginable rage. " _You!_ " It may as well have been a curse word with the amount of hate Raiser put into that one syllable. "You are a DEAD man!"

Shirou smirked, unafraid of his threat and simply held up his and gestured Raiser to try and attack, as if saying, "try it, I dare you." That only succeeded in angering him further.

"Forget the ultimatum!" Raiser roared, his flames swirling around his body, forcing Rias to back away in order to avoid being burned, though Shirou refused to take a single step back, despite the risk of getting burnt. "I'll kill you right now!"

Shirou raised his fist. "Bring it on Fire-Crotch! Just don't whine when I beat you!" He outstretched his other to stop Rias for intervening.

"Enough of this now." Raiser's flames were snuffed out and even Shirou felt paralyzed when Grayfia suddenly appeared between them. She spoke quietly, but there was an overwhelming intensity to her voice that said "Don't fuck with me.", a message received by both them, thus stopping a fight from breaking out. "Please calm down. If both of you were to continue, then I won't be quiet about it. For Sirzechs-sama's honor, I won't hold back. I will not warn you again."

"Tch!" Shirou clicked his tongue, placing his hands in his pockets. He knew how to pick his battles.

"To be told that by the woman renowned as the "Strongest Queen", even Raiser would be scared…" Raiser said, showing the first sign of fear Shirou had ever seen from him. "Raiser definitely wouldn't want to imagine fighting against the people from Sirzechs-sama's group, which is known to be made up of nothing but monsters."

Shirou then felt his attention peaked. "Wait, monsters?" He then turned to Rias. "Is that true?"

Rias nodded. "Yes, my Brother, Sirzechs isn't just a powerful Devil, he also commands a powerful Peerage where each member has power among the highest level of Ultimate-Class Devils, it's said that they are the "Strongest Peerage" in all the underworld, like how Grayfia is the "Strongest Queen". She explained.

Shirou listened to every word and processed this information. "The Strongest Peerage…?" Shirou then had a smile on his face that showed interest, curiosity, and excitement at that same time. "…Interesting."

Rias then noticed the look on his face and frowned. "Shirou, I know that look." She then looked him in the eye with a look of disapproval. "Whatever you're thinking, _do not_ do it."

Shirou then hushed her by placing his finger on her lips and then smiled at her. "Rias… You don't know shit."

He then removed his finger, Rias didn't know what she should be questioning more, his words or his actions.

"Ahem." Grayfia coughed getting everyone's attention back. "Moving on, Master Sirzechs-sama, and those from the House of Phenex knew it would turn out like this. To tell you the truth, this was to be the last discussion meeting. Everyone knew that it wouldn't be solved, so they decided to make a last resort."

"Yes of course they would. " Rias agreed displeased. "And what is this Last resort?"

"Milady, if you wish to push your opinion forward, then how about you settle it by having a Rating Game against Raiser-sama?"

"Rating Game?" Mika muttered off to the sideline. Her expression may have been confusing to the others, but Shirou knew, from the look in her eyes, that the two wires in her brain that sparked her motivation had suddenly connected. After all aside from her Brother and Anime, games were one of the few things Mika actually liked. Of course she would be filled with Vigor at the mention of them.

Shirou looked at the rest of the Peerage behind him. "Anybody want to explain? This feels important."

"It is a game that is played by the Devils with Peerages." Grayfia explained helpfully. "And they compete by making their servants fight in a series of different battles."

"So, it's basically just a fight then?" Shirou asked, suddenly getting motivated. "Alright, that's something I don't mind doing."

"There is just one problem with that." Rias said. "Only mature aged Devils can participate in official Rating Game."

"That may be the case for _official_ Rating Games." Grayfia explained, Shirou was getting confused wondering, are they doing it or not. "But if it's an unofficial match between Pure-Blood Devils, even immature Devils can participate. However, in this case—"

"When it involves the family and household problems, correct?" Rias guessed, her anger becoming more apparent than before. "In other words my family and the others decided to have a game as a last resort if I was to decline and already made preparations for the game… Just how far are they intending to interfere with my life to feel satisfied?!"

"Then milady, are you saying you would also decline to participate in the game?"

While still clearly frustrated with the machinations of the Gremory and Phenex families. Rias shook her head, stepping forward. "No I won't, since this is a chance. Alright then." Rias pointed her finger at the flame-wielding man in front of her. "Let's settle this with a game, Raiser."

"Heh, so you're accepting it, huh?" Raiser asked with a condescending chuckle that made Shirou want to punch him a into the wall few more dozen times. "Raiser doesn't mind. But Raiser is already a matured Devil and Raiser has already participated in the official game. Right now Raiser has won most of the games. Even so, you still want to play, Rias?"

Rias' response to the gamble made against her favour was a fearless smile. "I will. I will blow you away, Raiser!"

"Fine. If you win, do whatever you like. But if Raiser wins, you will marry Raiser immediately."

The intense stare-down between the two reminded Shirou of a turf war between rival gangs he'd seen in the past, both prepared to bust out knives and pipes and starting beating each other to Hell. Of course back then, the only reason they were glaring at one another was because Shirou was between them as their true enemy and the other group just happened to be in their line of vision.

"Understood. I, Grayfia, have confirmed both sides opinion. I will be in charge of the game between the two household. Is that okay?"

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"Understood." Grayfia bow respectfully to the two Pure Blooded Devils. "I will convey the news to the two households then."

"Guess we really are doing this then, well whatever…" Shirou smirked, feeling a little excited. "I'm actually looked forward to this a little, though I'll still win."

"Oho~" Raiser laughed. "It looks like this insignificant Pawn has gotten full of himself after a measly cheap shot." Raiser taunted, glaring at Shirou, Shirou glared back. "If Raiser used his full power there would be nothing left of you."

"You think you're better than me? Fuck you." Shirou shot back. "You're not the only one that's got more power in reserve and if a light punch like that was all it took to make you bleed, then you're full of more hot air than your flames."

Raiser clenched his fists and left small embers erupt from them, the two of them would have started there, but out of not provoking Grayfia, they held it in.

Raiser simply gave a sneer and turned to Rias and then glanced at the rest of her Peerage. "Hey, Rias. Would the ones here be your servants?"

"So what if they are?"

"Ha!" Raiser starts laughing after Rias answers him as if he finds it amusing. "Then this match will be a laugh. barring your Queen, the "Priestess of Thunder", none of them would last a second in a Rating Game. He snapped his fingers. "They stand no chance against my adorable servants."

The floor was again alight with the Orange and Red of the Phenex's magic circle, this time producing over a dozen figures, all women clothed in a variety of…Styles. There was no coherent uniform between them though and, in Shirou's opinion, they looked more like cosplayers.

"Are you serious? All women, all in borderline-erotic attire." Shirou scoffed. "Don't tell me these costume girls are your Peerage?" Raiser's eye twitched. "They look more like—"

"A HAREM!"

The unexpected, high-pitched squeal that erupted from Mika Tsukiharu's mouth almost pierced all of their eardrums. Those who were quick enough to cover their ears got off with less pain.

Mika flopped to the floor, quite-literally _rolling_ across the floors until she was right in front of Raiser. Then she stood right up and looked directly at him with a twinkling sparkle in her eyes, as if she was witnessing something she had always dreamt about.

Shirou was unsettled by the sparkles in her eyes.

"Don't tell me you actually have your own harem?!" Mika squealed, reaching out and grasping Raiser's hands in her own. "I thought I would only ever see things like this in eroge or Anime, but here it is-right before my eyes!"

"Uuuhhhh…" Raiser was actually dumbfounded by this upbeat girl in front of him, completely at a loss for words. He looked at Shirou questioningly.

Shirou shrugged. "Don't look at me man, I don't think I or anyone else here can follow a thing she says when she's like this."

"Fifteen!" Mika cried, looking at Raiser with admiration. "All of them with different themes! Look at all the heroine types! You are unbelievable, you know!"

It took a while to get over his initial shock, and after he did, Raiser was able to comprehend the fact that the young girl was _praising him_ and that her admiration was genuine. Even as a noble Devil, the sheer enthusiasm was a bit overwhelming for Raiser. Raiser's face lit up slightly before it defaulted to his normal confident smirk.

"But of course." He said. "As a member of the noble house of Phenex, it would reflex poorly to have anything but the best, be it servants or harems."

"I can tell." Mika agreed, her eyes still sparkling as she moved over to the group. "So many cups sizes and so many types~! I can tell at first glance how much time and effort you put into getting everything right! Your amazing!"

Being Raiser's servants and his harem, it was doubtful they weren't used to being leered at with lustful eyes, but something about the perverted gaze in Mika's eyes and the drool dripping from the corner of her mouth made them shudder.

"Shirou, what the hell is going on?" Rias asked.

"I don't know, but I hate it." Shirou fumed.

"And look at this one." Mika walked over to one of the girls, a tomboyish-looking redhead with a noticeable looking mask covering half of her face. "This one was a bold move that not many get right, you chose to sacrifice eroticism for the sake of style, but when with the rest of the it actually works and feel in place, excellent work."

Raiser felt more joy from this conversation, as it was blowing his ego further. "Raiser admits, he felt tempted to try something more revealing like the others, but variety is the key to the whole appeal and this outfit still does that great job of showing off my Rooks body beautifully well."

Mika then whipped out one of her arms.

"Iyah!" The woman let out a squeal of surprise as Mika firmly cupped her left bosom.

"I know what you mean. And I see you even had the right pant leg fashionably cut to show her thigh." Mika kept her hand where it was, and turned to Raiser. "Are thighs you preference?"

Raiser shook his head. "Actually, Raiser prefers the breasts more, not to fall into the usual standard but its the part that Raiser finds the most attractive, however Raiser still can enjoy the delightful beauty of the other parts, like the thighs, so I made it more noticeable to show them off."

Mika nodded. "Open-minded, that's pretty good."

"OKAY! I think that's enough!" Shirou then goes over to Mika and starts off by prying her hand that's still groping a boob. Shirou then lifts Mika from the ground and holds her close, he turns to Raiser's Rook. "Ah sorry about that, you alright."

The woman still had a blush but was more of less glad it was over. "Yes, thank you."

Shirou nodded and walked back to the rest. "Mika, I know you're kind of weird sometimes, but SERIOUSLY! Stop having this nasty conversation with that walking boner of a man, I've had all I can take."

Mika sighed. "Alright fine, you always spoil it."

Shirou then put Mika down next to Asia, then turned back to face Raiser not looking pleased. "And as for you, whatever the hell _that_ was, it's over, so back off."

Raiser narrowed his eyes. "How many times will you meddle in the affairs of your betters before you are satisfied boy? Is it jealousy that motivates you?"

Shirou's eyes twitch. "First of all: Don't even go there, as usual you're wrong." He said, still looking mad at him. "Secondly: You're hitting on an underage girl in front of your sex servants AND your, in case you've forgotten, _fiancée._ " Shirou jabbed a thumb at Rias, the redhead looking unimpressed by Raiser's actions.

Raiser scoffed. "It's common for Devils to have polyamorous relationships, even when married. Something of this nature shouldn't even faze Raiser's beloved Rias." He then got an idea. "For example." He then turns to his servants. "Let's show them how passionate we are. Yubelluna."

At Raiser order, one of the girls steps forward, she is a busty woman with long, wavy purple hair that falls all the way down her back and matching eyes. At the front, the right side of her hair falls over her breast and covers her right eye, while the left side falls near the top of her skirt. Her attire is a dress consisting of a navy blue tunic top with gold accents and a pale blue skirt with open sides, black shoes and over matching thigh-high stockings with garter belts. The top reveals much of her cleavage, and is held with a gold choker with blue and red jewels. Over this, she wears a white overcoat with black and gold accents and matching pauldrons. For accessories, she wears a black headband with a red-orange jewel over her forehead to keep her long hair in place, and wields a staff-like sceptre. For cosmetics, she wears purple lipstick and nail polish, matching her eyes and hair.

When she reached him, Raiser turned to face her, lifting her head up with one hand, he suddenly kissed her on the lip. Rias and her Peerage looked on in disgust towards Raiser. Asia has her face turn red and has her brain blow. This definitely too strong for Asia. Even Mika looked unnerved by how open he was being about it, as if he was just doing it to simply make a point. Raiser continued as he wrapped his arms around her and drove his tongue into her mouth, while making her moan.

After about half a minute of making out with her, Raiser separated his lips from her and went on to grope one of her large breasts, Yubelluna face looked pleasured while moans escaped her throat.

Raiser then sent Shirou a condescending smile. "Understand now? This is how the Higher-Class live."

Shirou sneered. "You're disgustingly hideous."

Raiser immediately stops, now feeling more insulted than ever. "What?!"

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Shirou asked, a look of contempt clearly on his face. "I don't even want to know how you thought I'd react. If that's really how the Higher-Class live, then they're better of dying out."

Now the others were surprised, they didn't think Shirou would go that far, Rias and Grayfia looked slightly offended, since they were technically also part of the Higher-Class.

Shirou now once again stood right in front of Raiser. Said Devil was giving Shirou the same hate-filled gaze Shirou was giving him.

"Correct." He spat. "Raiser doesn't know what he was expecting from you, but it's clear you insist on being nothing but a throne in Raiser's side."

"I assure you, I feel the same way." Shirou shot back.

"But beyond that I was having a conversation with the young woman back there." Raiser gestured to Mika.

Mika blinked. "Huh? I said all I had to say, what else is there?"

"Simple, but first." Raiser then turned to Rias. "Rias my dear, Raiser assumes that adorable young woman back there is also one of you servants, correct?"

Rias didn't know where he was going with this, but still answered. "That's right, she's one of my Rooks."

"Interesting." Raiser turns his attention back to Mika. "Tell me, your name is Mika, correct?" Raiser then smirks. "What would you say to coming back to the underworld with Raiser, my adorable duckling." Raiser offered.

[What?!]

Nobody was quite prepared for the offer Raiser made, not even his own servants knew that was coming.

"Raiser-sama?"

Raiser placed a hand on his chin and continued his offer. "You would live quite _comfortable_ as a servant of my household and Raiser would enjoy sharing this interesting discussion with you in greater length and details. All of the pleasures and riches of the world could be yours if you but only accept. What do you say? Raiser awaited her answer though was confident she would agree.

Mika raised a brow. "Don't you already have a full set?" She gestured to the fifteen women standing patiently behind him.

"True." Raiser admitted. "But Raiser's Mother and Father have long-since retired from the official games and both retain unused pieces. It would be a simple matter to request one of them to trade you with."

"I see." Mika noted without much expression. "But I'd rather not."

Raiser smiled as if he only found this more exciting. "Then how about a little wager?"

"What kind of wager?" Mika responded almost immediately.

"Mikaaaaa." Rias said warningly.

Mika ignored her.

"It's a simple bet on the outcome of this game." Raiser said.

"I'm listening."

"Mika!"

"Seriously, cut it out." Shirou warned quietly.

She ignored that too.

"If Raiser claims victory over Rias, and you know this to be a very strong possibility, you will come with us to the Underworld as a servant of Raiser's family." Raiser explained.

"And what if _Rias_ wins, what do I get out of this wager?"

"An interesting question, my dear." Raiser said whimsically. "Given the odds stacked against your side, it would be unfair for it to be anything less than the amount of burden placed on them. The House of Phenex is nothing if not fair. To put it simply: Raiser shall grant you whatever you desire so long as it is within Raiser's means and within reason."

"I see, I see." Mika repeated with a little more energy. "Sounds good, you're on."

"Mika!" Rias said, not agreeing to any of this.

Shirou inwardly face-palmed. _"Damn it."_

Raiser clapped his hands. "Wonderful, Raiser is glad you see things his way." Raiser then tried to reach out to her. "Now we can—"

SMACK!

Before his hand could get far, an open hand slapped his hand away, brushing it to the side. Shirou still standing before Raiser who was responsible for that, looked at him with an ice-cold death glare full of wrath.

"Don't you dear lay your hands on my Sister." His words sound like both a threat and a command.

"Big Bro and a handsome noble are fighting over me." Mika cooed, placing her hands on the sight of her blushing face. "If you two keep doing this, I might get embarrassed~"

"SHUT IT!" He snapped.

Mika placed a hand on her Brother's hands and smiled attempting to calm him down. "I know you're angry, but calm down, I was just messing around earlier is all. I only took the bet because I know you can win and even then I'd never really go with him, He's a total perv who treats harems like commodities, he has no respect for the harem dream."

"What?" Raiser gasped, genuinely wounded for the first time, then noticed something that made him do a double-take between the two siblings. "Wait…Sister? Big Bro?"

" _Little_ Sister." Shirou corrected.

.

.

.

"I don't buy it. She's cute and you're ugly."

"You flatter me~" Mika blushed slightly.

"You're not taking my Sister, you Bird-Brained Man-Whore!"

"You are just a servant." Raiser sneered as he refused to back down. "You have no right to lay claim anything a noble desires, especially women. Everything that belongs to the Gremory family will soon belong to the Phenex as well." Shirou's eyes widened in shock before narrowing his eyes in absolute disgusted.

"That's only _if_ you win the game."

"You mean _after_ Raiser wins."

"You mean after I _Beat_ you."

"Don't test Raiser brat, you are nothing compared to Raiser, you aren't even qualified to be in the same room as Raiser." Raiser felt himself reaching the limit of how much he could control his temper. "In fact, the truth is Raiser didn't even want to come to a small old building like this in the Human world. Rather, Raiser doesn't like the Human world that much. The fire and wind of this world is filthy. For a Devil like Raiser who rules fire and wind, Raiser can't stand it!"

Shirou scoffed. "You Porn-stars are the ones messing up the air, this ain't the Red-light distract, nobody wants to see live Sex-sense in board-day light."

"Are you calling the passion Raiser shares with his servants' debauchery?!" Raiser asked more insult by that than the fact that his servants were just called Porn-stars.

Shirou snorted. "Oh please, that's one of the tamer things I have to say."

"What?" Raiser narrowed his eyes.

"For starters this whole thing." Shirou gestured to Raiser's group. "The whole miss-matched harem thing, it's stupid, despite what Mika says."

"What?! In what why is that true?!" Raiser questioned. "You couldn't be more wrong!"

Shirou just looked at him with half-lidded eyes. "Are you kidding, you all look like a cast from Playboy Mansion, not the good kind, the kind where everyone felt guilty and wrong after watching, even the director."

Raiser then looked a little surprised. "What, you—"

"Was this just you being desperate for female attention? Were you feeling inferior to your older Brothers and needed something that you thought would make you feel more like a man?" Shirou asked, with the same expression.

Raiser now had a stunned expression. "This is getting oddly personal."

"Do you have any friends? Any relationships at all that aren't about your money or families position?"

"Raiser has a Sister."

"Oh, that poor girl."

"Um actually, I'm right here." One of the girls spoke up, she is a beautiful young girl with dark blue eyes. She has long blonde hair tied into twintails with large, drill-like curls and blue ribbons keeping them in place. The front of her hair has several bangs hanging over her forehead, with a V-shaped fringe hanging over the bridge of her nose. Her outfit consisted of a light pink dress with dark pink accents and a blue bow at the front. At the back, three feather-like extensions mimicking a bird's tail protruding from the dress. Appearance-wise, she did sort of resemble Raiser, in the same way that Mika resembled Shirou.

"Wait really, that miniature Princess Peach?" Mika asked.

"What did you call me?" The girl asked, not like she was insulted, but more like she genuinely didn't know what she was just called.

Shirou turned to Raiser. "Wait, is she just role-playing?"

"No." Chimed in Grayfia, feeling somewhat miffed at no longer having much control over the conversation taking place. "This is Ravel Phenex, the daughter of the Lord of the House of Phenex and the younger Sister of Raiser-sama."

"So you got to be in your Brother's harem?!" Mika gasped. "Luckyyyyy! I've been trying to push my Brother to make a move for years and he _still_ hasn't taken the bait."

Shirou face-palmed.

Ravel blushed deeply. "D-Don't mistake it for something so depraved, you filthy monkey," She snapped. "I simply fill a role at my Brother's side that no other woman could ever hope to fill."

Shirou looked at her with half-lidded eyes. "…Is that really true?"

Ravel then sighed. "…Well actually, it's because he requested it of me saying that this way he'd have "one of every type" and I eventually caved."

Shirou then turned to Raiser, looking at him like he was an idiot. "Are you serious right now, you asked your S _ister_ to be in your harem, that's both stupid and messed up."

Raiser scoffed. "What, you think it's creepy that Raiser has his sister in his group, you're wrong, having your sister in your harem has a significant meaning. Do you know the significant view of having your close relatives? Do you know how there are people who look up to and also get jealous about it? Well, I'm not into little Sisters, so I have her in my group as fashion. Now my harem is filled with every form of desire, she plays the role of both the little Sister and the Tsundere."

Shirou just looked at him with an expression that said, he literally didn't know what to say. Shirou then simply turns to Ravel with a look of sympathy. "…You have my condolences."

Ravel looks at him, then at Mika then back to him, she then gives Shirou the same look. "…And I give you mine."

Mika looked a little offended.

Raiser's eye twitched. "Moving on. Raiser won't allow this to continue! Your insistence on insulting Raiser and worst of all your mockery of Raiser's adorable servants."

Shirou narrowed his eyes. "What on earth are you talking about? I never once insulted _them_."

Raiser clicked his tongue. "Don't make a fool of Raiser, you specifically said it was stupid, we all heard you!"

"And you misunderstood, it is stupid, but not because of them, it's because of you." Shirou points to Raiser.

Raiser narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"It obvious, individually some of them are pretty good." Shirou gestured to Raiser's harem. "But altogether, their just mashed up and all over the place and worst of is you." He then gestures back to Raiser. "You're just some wannabe-harem king who's trying to show off, but in truth, you're just trying to hard to get a reaction, you make this whole thing lame."

Raiser's eyes widened before narrowing with hatred. There was an unpleasant _crack_ as he began grinding his teeth in his mouth. "Raiser is the King, the beauty of this Peerage can only exist with Raiser." He said through his teeth.

Shirou sent a taunting smirk. "Guy's who do the most bragging are the ones that have the most to prove." Shirou insulted. "You know what they say if you got it flaunt it and since you don't, you had someone else flaunt theirs."

FLAME!

 **Play OST One Piece - Luffy's Fierce Attack**

"That's Enough!" Raiser once again let loose a powerful aura of flames surrounding his body and spreading his wings made of fire. His expression filled with rage, contempt, hatred, and killing intent. He was already hothead and after all of Shirou taunting, insulting and disrespect, he had finally reached the breaking point. The heat he was generating was so hot it forced everyone to back away a few steps, Rias and her Peerage, Mika as well. Even Raiser's Peerage back away a bit. Grayfia, however, was unfazed and Shirou as always refused to back down. "Raiser. Will. Not. Stand. This. Any. Longer!"

Raiser then covers his entire left hand and forearm with fire. "Raiser is a High-Class Nobleman of the Underworld, a member of the great House of Phenex! You are just a Low-Class Wretch! Since you don't understand what it means to insult your betters, Raiser teach it to you by scorching your VERY FLESH!"

"Raiser-sama!"

"Onii-sama!"

"Shirou-san!"

Raiser's Peerage, along with both Ravel and Asia spoke out in concern for what was about to happen. Everyone else there was all worried about Shirou's fate and felt they needed to step in. Mika, however, was the only one of them who wasn't worried.

Shirou narrowed his eyes and had a fearless expression at Raiser who was preparing to attack. Shirou's left arm glowed and summoned his Boosted Gear and get ready to attack.

Raiser charged. "DIE!"

Shirou charged. "I DON'T THINK SO!"

 **[BOOST!]**

 **[EXPLOSION!]**

Shirou's body was covered in an emerald-green aura, matching the intensity of Raiser's aura, his expression now radiated a desire to crush the foe before him.

CLASH!

As both of them reached each other in less than a second, both their fists clashed, the result. A strong discharge of power and magic violently blasting against each other in a struggle for dominance, their attacks were trying to push the other back and that caused more to discharge around them, strong flames and emerald-green energy were shooting out wildly across the room and everyone had to take cover to avoid getting it by a stray shot.

"Grrr…."

"Grrtthh…."

Both Shirou and Raiser clenched their teeth, pushing as hard as they could to break through the other.

Then after what felt like a long time, when in reality was just a few seconds a winner was decided.

BANG!"

"Auuuggghhh!"

Shirou's attack finally broke through and blew away Raiser's flaming fist. The attack didn't stop as Shirou's fist got past Raiser's guard and connected a strong blow to his face, sending him flying backwards through the air and once again, slammed him into the wall. This time was much harder than the last time, the wall behind him was cracked and had a huge dent behind it. Raiser then fell to the floor.

[Raiser-sama!]

His Peerage all rushed to him concerned and all fifteen of them stood around him. Raiser coughed out some blood, enough to cover his hand. He looked at it with shook and disbelief unable to comprehend how what just happened had happened.

Shirou then slowly approached him, Raiser's servant wanted to try and stop him but found themselves feeling somewhat intimidated.

"Tell me, won't you? As a High-Class Nobleman of the Underworld." Shirou then stopped and stood right in front of where Raiser laid. Raiser looked up to face him, and Shirou looked down to face Raiser. Shirou had a look of both contempt and arrogance. "How does it feel to be looked down upon by a Low-Class Wretch?"

Shirou didn't wait for an answer as he turned to walk away, Ravel looked at him with shock and surprise in her eyes. She had always believed her Brother was unbeatable and that no one could hope to best him, because of that belief she never would have dreamed a Low-Class Devil could best him in a power struggle and yet she had just witnessed it right in front of her. She almost couldn't believe this was the same person she shared a short conversation with minutes ago. Neither Shirou nor anyone else, not even Ravel herself noticed, but there was a faint pink blush on her face.

Raiser struggled to get up. "W-Who the hell are you?"

Shirou didn't turn back and just kept walking. "I'm the guy you wish you could be."

 **Music Off**

Rias and her own servants were gaping in a similar manner as Raiser's, just as surprised at Shirou's unexpected display of power.

"I didn't… I had no idea Shirou was that strong?" Rias gasped. "Even though he's been improving as a Devil, this is insane!"

"Heh, improving is an understatement, Big Bro is a lot stronger than he lets on." Mika whispered. "Truth is this past month, he been training like a madman, all to better master his Sacred Gear and his demonic power, every day he kept going till he dropped which took a while, and as you can see, the results were worth it."

Shirou then stop in front of the Occult Research Club, noticing their looks of surprise directed at him.

"What're you guy's looking at?"

They hesitated before answering.

"…Senpai… Strong."

"Yeah, we had no idea you had improved this much."

"As your senior, I should discipline you for hiding this from us."

Shirou sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "First of I didn't have to tell you guys anything, alright? My private time is my own business. Secondly, It's not that surprising, I've just been spending most of my time training, if you guys wanted you could try it sometime, instead of spending all your time munching sweets or flirting with chicks."

Shirou was looking at Kiba and Koneko.

Kiba smiled. "Hey, come on now, I don't spend all my time on that." He defended.

Koneko didn't say anything, as if she didn't even feel the need to defend herself.

"So it's the Red Dragon Emperor." They all turned around when they heard Raiser's voice. Raiser was now back on his feet and directed his gaze to Shirou. "I admit, you did surprise back there, but most of your power probably comes from the Boosted Gear."

 _"Even if he was training, to get this far so fast?"_ Rias thought to herself. _"Shirou… What kind of training did you do?"_

"If we follow that logic, doesn't most of your power comes from the House of Phenex?" Shirou retorted.

Raiser gritted. "That's different."

Shirou nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Unlike you, I didn't get all my power by inheriting it from Mommy and Daddy, my power came from endless hours of training, that's the difference."

Raiser saw what losing his cool got him and decided to just quit while he was ahead. He then turned to Rias. "Rias, how about we have a match in 10 days? We could do it now, but that wouldn't be interesting."

Rias scowled. "Are you giving me a handicap.

"Are you against it? Is it humiliating?" Raiser's expression then becomes serious. "The Rating Game isn't something simple that you can win with only your feelings. If you can't use your servants' power to the fullest, then you will lose immediately. So it's not weird for you to train with your servants for your first Rating Game. I have seen Devils who lost without using their power to the fullest countless of times, no matter how great their potential and power was.

Rias didn't speak, merely implying her acknowledgement with a nod.

When Raiser directs his palm towards the ground, the magic-circle starts to glow.

"10 days it is then." Raiser confirmed. "If it's you, then you should be able to improve your servants." He then looks at Shirou. "You had better train harder than anyone else when the game ends Raiser will personally finish you and claim his prizes." He was referring to Mika and Rias.

"Suck it." Shirou retorted. "The only thing that's going to end is you."

They both glared one last time before he looked back to Rias.

"Rias, the next time we meet will be at the game."

Saying that Raiser disappears in a burst of flames from the magic-circle along with his servants.

Even though the fight hadn't even truly started yet, the feeling of dread permeated the air.

Mika clapped and had a smile "I think that went pretty well." Mika broke the ice.

Rias had an expression that completely disagreed. "In what way?!"

* * *

 **And that's the chapter, and what'd you think about the meeting, I always enjoyed the idea of writing this part so it felt pretty good. And as for the confrontation between Shirou and Raiser, it was fiery, it was explosive, it was a disaster waiting to happen, fun right. The two of them have personalities like fire and gasoline, when they get to close everything around them gets destroyed.**

 **And I loved writing them going back and forth with the insults and taunts they were classic. Though Mika being Mika would obviously react to the harem, but not enough where it would cross the line into unknown territory. Though she did make the bet, it'll just drive Shirou to want to win more, and despite what everyone seems the think, like Shirou she's much stronger than they all seem to think.**

 **As for the power struggle back there, As he said before he and Ren have been training this past month, Shirou has a really strong growth rate and improves at a fast rate, with a month of uninterrupted training, and sparring with someone as strong as Ren, along with better understanding the Boosted Gear, Shirou had the power to come out on top, As for a full-on fight with Raiser, you'll have to wait and see. Next chapter will be the training mountain arc.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	10. Hard Training And Something New

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This will be the first chapter of the Mountain-training arc, I plan on adding something extra for the training in this arc so enjoy it. And also this arc will only have two chapters, this being one of them so don't worry. I want to get started on the Rating Game as soon as I can. Let's begin. Enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Hard Training And Something New**

* * *

 _"You Bastard!"_

 _Shirou was only eleven years old back in those days. He had spent a year at this crap hole, working for the pieces of shit who ran the place._

 _They were a group of people who organized in legalized crime. They stole things when they wanted to steal, they hurt others whenever the mood struck them and they even killed like it was no big deal._

 _Shirou knew that personally since he killed in order to be hired by them._

 _Even though it was the worst time of his life, he still did it and he still stayed._

 _Why, because they had two things he needed to survive._

 _The First was being capable of fighting while having the strength to match._

 _Shirou knew there was one important thing he needed in life to survive and that thing was power. The power not to lose, the power to fight, the power crush any foe that comes his way, the power to hold onto what's valuable to him and never let anyone else take it. That was the power he desperately needed and would do whatever he could to get it, but he knew ordinary methods wouldn't be enough._

 _Now after a year of being here, he had it, the fighting ability, the survival skills, the strength to even overpower an adult who was twice his age and size. He had it in his hands._

 _The other thing he needed was money. He needed money for both himself and his sister to live on. He was just a kid so he couldn't get money the normal way and his parents didn't have any family or friends he knew about that he could reach or call for help. And if they tried anything else, then odds are they'd end up being taken in by child services and sent to foster homes. And regardless of what they might say, Shirou didn't believe that would be the right choice._

 _Doing that would mean they would have to live under someone else's watch and they would be surrounded by strangers, whom he didn't feel like taking a risk and trusting on the premise that they "might" be good people. Shirou wanted to survive on his own, and for that, he needed a way to make money, that's why he was here._

 _This place makes a large sum of profit for doing many things Shirou was sure weren't legal or safe. But he didn't care about that, all he cared about was waiting until there was enough for what he needed to do._

 _Now that the day where he had both had finally come he no longer needed this place. That's why right now he was standing in a small room with a table in the middle, placed stacks of money in a briefcase, while the gangs boss was standing in front of the door looking ready to murder him. Though Shirou didn't really seemed concerned and just kept at what he was doing._

 _"Sorry boss, I had to do it." Young Shirou spoke emotionless._

 _"So it was you, You did all this!"_

 _The boss was refereeing to the fact that everyone in the room, besides the two of them were dead and on the floor. And it wasn't just them, every single member of this gang was dead, some in different ways, some simply were on the ground laying motionless, overs had knife cuts going through their necks and throats indicating they were murdered and the whole one-floor building that was their base was littered all over the place with dead bodies._

 _"Yeah, I did, pretty easy in fact."_

 _"How?!"_

 _"Guess I'll tell you, first of I spiked all the alcohol with rat poison so when everyone took a drink they would die." Young Shirou explained. "After that happened, that was the signal were I would cut the power, I know everyone left would be confused by the sudden darkness, so I pulled out a switchblade and cut open everyone's throat's from the hallways to this room, I knew this room was the one where you guys count the money, now everyone's out of the way, this gang is dead and this money is mine."_

 _"Oh, I bet you're feeling really smart about this?!" The boss said sarcastically while teaming with rage. "How'd you even set this up, did someone help you? Did they betray me for a cut of the profits?!"_

 _"No one helped me, boss. I've just been planning this for months. You're the idiot who never saw it coming because you actually thought I had even a shred of loyalty to you."_

 _Young Shirou put the last of the money in the briefcase, then closed it and then picked it up from the table._

 _"Whelp, explanation over, now then it's time I go."_

 _"LIKE HELL YOU WILL!" The boss roared. He then drew a pocket knife. "YOU SERIOUSLY THINK I'LL LET YOU LEAVE AFTER ALL THIS? OVER MY DEAD BODY!"_

 _"Suit yourself." Young Shirou still had the same emotionless expression, he then took out a handgun from his pocket and aimed it at the boss._

 _BANG! BANG! BANG!_

 _Young Shirou fired his gun three times at the boss._

 _THUD!_

 _The first shot hitting his chest, though before the boss could scream Young Shirou fired again, this time in his neck, this killing him, but Young Shirou wanted to be sure so he fired one more time in his forehead._

 _After being shot thrice by Young Shirou, the boss' lifeless body fell and hit the ground in a heap. And with that, this entire gang had been wiped out by a single eleven-year-old boy, in one night._

 _Young Shirou had been wearing a glove with the hand that was holding the gun to avoid leaving fingerprints. He then picked up the briefcase and began to make his way out of the room, as he passed by the corpse that was once the boss, he looked down at it. "I know this isn't really the best time for this but, thanks for taking such good care of me and my Sister this past year." He then drops the gun on top of his body. "I really appreciate it."_

 _Shirou then walks out of the room and down the hallway, ignoring all the dead bodies he either walked passed or walked over._

 _Eventually, he made it to a certain room at the end of the building, he opened the door and walked inside._

 _Inside was a small cramped room with very little space, the only furniture was a single bed and an open laptop. Resting on the bed was a little girl with long black hair, she laid there sound asleep, not knowing of the murderous actions that just took place. This girl was Shirou's younger Sister; Mika Tsukiharu, at the age of eight._

 _Young Shirou took out a backpack and placed the briefcase inside, he then picked up the laptop and put that inside the backpack as well. When that was done he walked over to the bed and placed a hand on his Sister's face, she responded to his touch and slowly opened her eyes._

 _"B-Big Bro…?" Young Mika spoke, her eyes open half-open, she was only half awake._

 _Young Shirou smiled and picked her up, carrying her princess-style. "Come on Mika, it's time to go."_

 _"Go?… Go where?"_

 _"Wherever we want."_

* * *

It was present-day and Shirou was in his room, packing things he would be needed for a trip that would last a few days, in particular clothes better suited for training. After the meeting with Raiser, it was decided that in the ten days before the game started, they would use their time to train so that they could be better prepared to win. Since they were outnumbered and were facing more experienced opponents, they were at a disadvantage.

Shirou clicked his tongue irritated.

"Why the hell am I thinking about the past at a time like this?" He asked himself annoyed. "Stop worrying about useless shit like that, focus already Shirou, this fight's the one that counts."

The door to his room opened, Asia stepped inside. "Shirou-san, are you finished?"

Shirou didn't turn around to face her. "Not yet, give me a minute."

"Well, I'm ready and so is Mika-san." Asia informed him.

"Good." Shirou nodded. "We're gonna be gone for ten days, so let's only take what we need."

"Umm… I-Is your hand okay?" Asia asked nervously.

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Shirou asked.

"Well, you punched into Raiser-san flames back there," Asia reminded him. "If you want I could see if it needs healing."

Shirou snorted. "First of all, don't ever add "san" to his name, he doesn't deserve it. Secondly my hands fine." He lifted up his left hand. "My hand was covered by the Boosted Gear, so I didn't feel a thing."

Asia sighed in relief. "I see, thank goodness."

Shirou finished packing his things and turned around to face Asia. "Anyway, you shouldn't worry about that, you Should-You…Yoooou-what the crap are you wearing?" He asked deadpan.

Now that he was looking at her, Shirou got a perfectly good view of what Asia was wearing, it was some kind of "Sexy Nurse" outfit, that he never thought he'd seen her in. It had slits on the sides of her white mini-skirt to show off more of her legs and her nurses top was unbuttoned to show a generous (In relation to Asia's size) view of her cleavage. Shirou sighed.

Asia clearly misinterpreted Shirou's confusion and curiosity for interest and wonder. "I'm glad you like it! Aika-san gave it to me since we were friends now, She told me that the best possible way to repay you for all that you've done for me and to help lift your spirits, that I should wear this while helping you!"

Shirou pinched the bridge of his nose. _"Maybe asking Aika to be her friend wasn't the best idea or just a good idea with consequences."_ Shirou thought to himself. Asia was a good girl and it didn't seem like a good idea to give advice on sexual appeal to a girl who would have been eaten alive if left to her own devices around other teenage boys. "Did Mika see you?"

Asia nodded. "She saw what I was wearing, then smiled and said I should see you quickly."

 _"Something tells me it was more of a perverted grin than a smile."_ Shirou thought to himself. "Well whatever, go change."

"Eh? But the Chief said we need to be there as soon as we can."

"Well Rias isn't here and I say change." Shirou responded in impatiently. "Besides, if she were here, she'd tell you the same thing."

Asia didn't want to make Rias and the club wait, but she didn't want to trouble Shirou so she complied. She left to change.

Shirou then took out his phone. "Guess it couldn't hurt." He then dials down a phone number and makes a call, after a few rings the phone picks up.

"Hello?"

* * *

Shirou let out a soft sigh, walking down a rocky path.

"You holding up okay?" Kiba asked.

"Yeah, better than most people would by this point." It was only an hour or so into walking up the mountain trail before him that he started to feel a bit annoyed by all this. "I still don't see why I have to carry everything, this feels like a joke at my expense."

"Well from what the Chief said, it would be a good startup." Kiba smiled awkwardly. "Since your strength could match that of a Rook, then this shouldn't be a problem for you."

"That's not the point!" Shirou barked, hunching over beneath, not the weight, but the awkward position of the comically-oversized bag on his back that contained literally everyone's packed belongings. "I mean why am I the only one carrying _everything_ , you'd think I'd just have to carry my own weight instead of everyone's."

Kiba offered a hand. "You want me to help?"

Shirou sighed again. "No, if I do that, then I'll hear more of Rias' nagging on how 'If you can't do something this simple, then you can't defeat our opponents' or something along those lines anyway."

Koneko passed by the two at a faster pace, she also didn't carry her own bag. "…You're lagging, it's not that heavy you know."

Shirou growled, glared at Koneko. "Oh sure, talk is cheap! If it's so easy for you then _you_ do it!" Shirou wanted to follow up but he didn't want to waste energy on this so he kept walking. "Anyway mountain training? Isn't that a little cliché?"

After finishing up with their packing, Shirou and the others meet up with Rias and they all began their long journey to the summit of an unknown mountain range.

"Maybe, but the territory belongs to the Chief's family." Kiba explained. "It's vast and widely uninhabited, making it the perfect place for Devils like us to train."

"I guess…" Shirou sighed again. "I just don't see why we couldn't just teleport there."

"You would've preferred to teleport?" Kiba asked.

"Well yeah, I don't know why we don't when it's more convenient than just normal travel." Shirou pointed out. "And since we're short on time anyway, wouldn't that also speed things up?"

"I suppose you have a point there. But the Chief has spoken." Kiba said with a smile that made Shirou irate.

"Hey you two, pick up the pace," Rias called out from up ahead. "It's just a little bit further! Over the next slope!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Shut it would ya! Don't tell me how to walk!"

And that was the end of that conversation.

The rest of the trip passed by in relative silence.

"And here we are!"

The building they stopped at was rather unimpressive in most categories aside from its size, but then again, Shirou had thought the same thing about the Occult Research Club's building before heading inside. He considered exploring the building they would be spending their training days in.

 _"Well, I'm not that picky, but…"_ Shirou still looked a little unhappy about this, while approaching the doors to the building.

Rias noticed his expression. "Something wrong, Shirou?"

Shirou shrugged. "It's just, is all this really necessary? Feels like we'll be living in comfort while we train."

Rias raised a brow. "Is there something wrong with that?"

Shirou shook his head. "It's just not what I'm used to, for me hard training also needs a hard environment, making everything about training." They all reached the door. "This place is way to fancy for me to call, harsh training environment."

"Don't worry, you'll feel more used to it after a while." Akeno said with a smile.

"Hopefully."

They all entered inside.

* * *

Once they were all inside and unpacked, they were all in the main dining room.

From some reason or another, everyone was wearing sports jerseys, Rias was wearing a fully red tracksuit, so were Asia and Akeno, while Kiba was wearing a grey tracksuit, Koneko surprisingly enough was just wearing her uniform for gym class, the uniform consists of a white t-shirt with navy blue accents with the Kuoh Academy emblem embroidered on the front-left side, navy blue bloomers and navy blue and white sneakers.

The Tsukiharu siblings were the only two not wearing those things. Instead, Shirou was wearing a loose-fitting white T-shirt, black training pants good for running and free movement, fingerless sports training gloves, and black and white sneakers.

Mika was just wearing her normal casual attire.

Rias spoke up, getting everyone's attention. "Okay, everyone, now that we're all here let's start our training!"

The members of the Occult Research Club looked ready.

Shirou, however, turned to leave. "Yeah well, good luck with that."

Rias noticed his departure. "Wait, where are you going?"

Shirou stopped. "Where else? To train."

"Well then wait here, we're all about to start soon." Rias informed him.

"Rias, I think your misunderstanding something." Shirou then turned to look at her. "I mean I'm going to train without you guys."

[What?]

Both Rias and the others were all surprised by that declaration, though Mika just had a knowing look like she had expected this.

"Don't make me repeat myself, I'm doing this on my own." Shirou then looked at the rest of them. "Look, I've seen you guys fight and in truth, I don't think I can gain much from training with you, besides I've been training none stop, so this ten days thing will just be me picking up where I left off. But you guys hardly train at all. Instead, you just wanted to enjoy the rosy student life and I doubt just ten days of training will instantly fix that, but good luck anyway."

Kiba, Akeno, and Koneko were a little offended by his words, sure they don't train as often as they could have, but they know they aren't weak and yet Shirou was completely dismissing their potential as training partners, though they can't doubt Shirou is stronger than they thought he was, but still.

Rias preempted him by walking out in front of him, blocking his path. "Shirou, I can't let you do that! We only have ten days left to train before the Rating Game and in that time we all need to come together as a team, you might believe in your strength and maybe it is impressive, but this isn't something we can just rush into with out preparation, that's why it's in your best interest to train with us, all of us!"

Shirou just stared at her. "Is that a joke? Rias, I told you before, I don't need you." He reminded her. "And I certainly don't need your help with training. Besides even if I did train with them, the results would just take longer to achieve then they would be otherwise."

"What? Why is that?" Rias asked

"Those guys may seem fine to you, but to me, they're to laxed, anytime something happens they can only think about having you come up with an answer for, so they don't worry even when they should, they don't act unless Rias says they should, they don't fight unless Rias says they should, they don't train unless Rias says they should." Shirou listed. "And even when they fight and train, they can only fight when you tell them what to do or they can only do the training you set up from them."

Rias narrowed her eyes. "And what's wrong with that? I'm their master and their King, they're supposed to rely on me."

Shirou narrowed his eyes. "Relying on someone and depending on someone are two different things!" He set the record straight. "Because of the way you do things, they've come to depend on you, now no matter what happens they always think 'It'll be fine as long as we believe in Rias' and now they can't do a thing unless you give the word, that's the worst mindset to have on the battlefield. You won't be there the whole time and if things don't go how you expected they won't know what to do next, so unless they learn how to think for themselves, then I won't gain a thing from training with them."

The others felt some of Shirou's words hit home this time, they wanted to deny it but they couldn't exactly say his words didn't have some truth to them. They had never actually been in a real battle before, at best they just hunt Stray Devils and all they ever did was what Rias told them, but looking back on it, they never really made a move until Rias ordered them and all their formations were the ones she thought up of. They didn't have a problem with following her orders but, now they were wondering, had they really become depended on her.

"But Shirou, don't you see that you're still needed here, you are one of the key's to winning this game." Rias said, not backing down. "Your Sacred Gear along with Asia's healing are two very important factors that could decide the very outcome of this match, but that's why you need to train with us so we can draw out its full potential and know when we're ready."

Shirou didn't budge. "In that case, I'll spend the next ten days training till my life's in danger, then I'll heal up and do it again, then I'll definitely be ready!"

"You don't know if that will work!"

"I'll make sure it'll work! 'Cause like you I can't afford to lose!"

Their argument was getting heated.

"Just let him go."

They both looked to see whose voice that was. The one who spoke out was Mika.

"Mika?" Shirou raised a brow.

"But he needs to train with us!" Rias still argued.

"Rias, we agreed that I would be the one that decides the strategies for this period of training." Mika reminded her. "And I say it's better to let him go."

"But why? What possible benefit could there be?" Rias questioned.

"You would know if you'd stop being so desperate and think!" Mika silenced her. "Think about it, Big Bro obviously knows what he's doing when it comes to training, you yourself saw that back at the club room and right now he's saying he can go further if he's the key to our victory then he at least deserves your trust that he can prepare himself, is that too much to ask? A little trust?"

Rias opened and closed her mouth as if she was trying to find the right words. She wanted to argue more but she couldn't deny, Shirou's training, whatever it is he does, clearly does end up with great results and she had seen it happen, time and time again, Shirou producing amazing results and going beyond her expectations. Mika was right Rias was desperate, but that was because her fate hinged on the outcome of this battle, and yet, her odds were low already so maybe this couldn't hurt for a little bit.

Rias breathed in and then out, then spoke. "Okay, do what you think will work."

Shirou turned. "I don't need your permission," Shirou began walking away. "Good luck, you're gonna need it."

Asia followed after him. "Wait, Shirou-san."

Shirou stopped. "What is it, Asia?"

"I-I knew you want to do this alone, but please at least let me come with you." Asia requested nervously.

"Hmm…" He considered it, Shirou faced her. "Why not, I might need some healing anyway."

Asia smiled, relieved that he said yes.

"And maybe after a while, you could train with your friends too." Asia suggested, gesturing to the rest of the Peerage.

Shirou turned around again. "My friends?…Hmph Laughable."

Shirou then walked out the door and outside and Asia followed.

"Asia!" Rias tried to make a move to stop her Bishop, but a firm hand grasped her hand. She turned to Mika. "What?"

"Let her go." Mika said. "Right now my Brother is going to need a healer, considering the kind of training he might do and he'll need someway to calm himself down."

"Calm down? From what?" Rias asked, confused. "He seemed calm to me."

Mika shook her head. "He's trying to hold it in, but I can tell, he really feels pressure right now and that's because he knows what's at stake."

"You mean the bet you made with Raiser?" Rias deduced.

Mika nodded. "Yeah, he'll train twice as hard now and have twice the amount of stress, that's not a good thing." Mika had a worried look in her eyes.

"That's something I've been wanting to ask, why did you make that bet anyway?" Rias questioned, with curiosity. "Why follow Raiser's lead if you knew it would make things worse for your Brother?"

"Because of what Raiser said if we lose then everything you have will be his." Mika reminded her of Raiser's words. "That's why I knew, even if I didn't agree to the bet, the same result would happen if we lose, but I wanted him to know I wasn't intimidated."

Rias processed her words, now understanding her actions. "I see, but in a way, that means you were bluffing."

Mika turned to her. "You're one to talk, you knew we're at a disadvantage and yet you talked like you had some secret plan on how to win."

Rias wanted to retort but decided not to.

"Anyways, forget about that." Mika stared at the Crimson-haired girl. "We should focus on us for the time being. The rest of us are as equally if not less ill-equipped than BroSekai is.

For a moment, it appeared as though Rias would object to Mika's rebuttal, but she instead let out a sigh. "You're right." Everyone was surprised as Rias caved in to the young girl's wishes. "Where do we go from here?"

"Well, Kiba and Koneko are the only two who are physical fighters, so in terms of training we could just have them spar with one another, get a firmer grasp on their fundamentals." Mika stated. "The people who I think could use the most work are Asia and myself. After all, in a fight, we're about as useful as house insurance for a homeless man."

Kiba raised his hand to speak. "Mika, not that I don't agree, I'm still confused as to why you're the one who's doing our strategies," He then turned to Rias. "Is there a reason for this Chief?"

"Oh come on Kiba, I assure you it'll be fine." Rias rubbed her chin. "Truth-be-told, I was skeptical at first. I even tested out her basic skills with normal games of strategy, especially Chess, since Shirou said that was her speciality."

"And?"

"She…" Rias paused. "She far surpassed my expectations. As far as her strategic capabilities go, she is quite impressive."

"That's her way of saying I whupped her real good~" Mika teased.

"It was a close game." Rias argued pettily.

"I literally beat her with my King, don't ask how." Mika said, raising her head up high with an expression of pride on her face. "I'm just that good."

" _Anyway_." Rias continued. "Mika will be helping us handle tactics and strategies in preparing for the Rating Game, so she will be exempt from physical training. For the rest of you. I've devised regimens to help you increase your power-"

"And _I_ ," Mika interrupted, pulling out several sheets of paper from inside her shirt. "Have developed a _better_ training regiment for everyone."

"Excuse me?"

Mika threw the sheets of paper in the air, letting them rain around her follow Devils. "Rias remember, for this battle, I am the strategist." She smirked in a way similar to Shirou, the type that was breaming with confidence and made his enemy's blood boil. "And as your chief strategist, these are regimens I recommend after carefully analysing all your abilities, far superior to that paltry dumb muscle growth plan you had. This will guarantee results. Big Bro can handle himself, so this is mostly for all of you."

Rias picked up a piece of paper, examining its contents. "And how exactly did you learn about all our abilities, to begin with?" Her expression became more displeased the longer she stared at the piece of paper. It was not that the information and suggestions were inadequate.

…Rather, they were _too_ adequate. Near perfect analyses on every single one of their abilities.

"No time for talk." Mika said with finality. "Your family is way to fractured and there's nothing that can be done about it this moment. Let's focus on our training for the time being." Everyone considered for a moment before giving their nods of agreement. "First of there are Kiba and Koneko." The Knight and Rook stepped forward. "We don't have enough time to teach you any specialized techniques or powers, but I have several ideas on how to enhance your fighting performance, so stick around." Then she spoke to the two eldest members of the club, a steely look in her eyes. "As for you two, we have a lot to talk about and a lot to do. Prepare yourselves."

* * *

Shirou walked outside through the deep forest in this mountain range. At first, Asia was following him, but he told her he was going to start with some self-training first and told her to stay out of range of the barrier he was going to set up.

After being a few kilometres away from Asia and even further from the house, he felt he was far enough to be safe.

"You can come out now!" Shirou called out.

Suddenly right after his call, there was the ruffling in the bushes, Shirou turned to his right, waiting for what or rather who was in there to come out.

However he was surprised when he saw what it was that came out, as it was not what he was expecting, what came out of the bushes was a brown-furred Wolf, it walked up to Shirou on all fours and stopped a few steps away from him, and Shirou couldn't be sure but to him, it almost looked like the Wolf was smiling.

Shirou blinked. "Uh… Ren? is that you?" He asked, unsure about this.

"Yep, it sure is." To Shirou's surprise, the Wolf responded, in human language, with the voice of his friend Ren.

The surprises didn't stop there, after answering, the Wolf was suddenly starting to build up energy and then after a few seconds, there was a puff of smoke that surrounded the Wolf, when the smoke cleared, standing there in place of the brown-furred Wolf, Was Ren Todo dressed in sports training clothes, with his Wolf's ears and tail out.

"Hey Shirou, surprised?" Ren asked, smiling.

Shirou had wide eyes after seeing that. "Yeah! How'd you even do that?"

"It's an ability I have." Ren answered. "I can turn into the animal of have Youkai traits too, like a Wolf for me. And I used that form to follow you guys here without being noticed 'cause." Ren shrugged. "Come on, who'd care about seeing a Wolf in the woods?"

"Yeah, but how long have you had this ability? Can all Youkai do that?" Shirou was still amazed by this new discovery but soon claimed down. "Questions for later, right now I need your help."

"Yeah I can tell but, when you called you just said something was happening and you wanted me to follow you guys." Ren responded. "So what's up, why are we in the mountains?"

"A lot happened, a real lot." Shirou said with a serious expression. "Let me explain."

Shirou then begun to explain the events that had transpired back at the Occult Research Club's meeting room, Grayfia being there, Raiser's appearance, the engagement between him and Rias, Shirou's dislike of the man in question, the Rating Game, Raiser's greater numbers and experience, Raiser twisted interest in Mika, the bet between Mika and Raiser that will decide her fate and the ten days they have to train.

"I see." Ren nodded with a serious expression, taking in all this information. "To think all this would happen and so you need to train to win this, is Raiser strong?"

"Based on how everyone keeps hyping him up, I think so." Shirou said begrudgingly. "And more than that he's got firepower, I really feel like getting ready for this."

"So then, should we do our usual training?"

Shirou shook his head. "No, let's do our training with a new level of intensity."

Ren raised a brow. "You really want to train that hard?"

Shirou nodded. "Yeah, no matter what happens, I can't afford to lose."

"I get it, not just for yourself, but you're that concerned about Mika." Ren deduced.

"Yeah." Shirou narrowed his eyes. "I'll train until my fist are bleeding or my bones crack if that's what it takes." He declared. "I won't let that fire dick touch my Sister."

Ren knew he was serious about this. "Okay let's begin."

And with that Shirou put up a barrier around them, the sky and the area around them turned red, and they were the only two in the in this space around the forest. Once they were here, Ren got into a fighting stance and so did Shirou.

"Okay, let's start by—"

PUNCH!

Shirou didn't get to finish, since while talking he was interrupted when Ren suddenly speed blitzed him and jumped from where he was standing to appear right in front of Shirou and threw a fast punch right at him. Fortunately for Shirou thanks to his fine sharpened reflexes, he reacted in time to block the punch by summoning his Boosted Gear, he and Ren stayed in that position and both smirked.

"Heh, I'm actually surprised you blocked that one." Ren spoke with a smirk. "Though since you could, you might actually be ready in ten days."

"I'm surprised to Ren." Shirou spoke with the same expression. "Where the hell have you been hiding that speed?"

Ren snorted. "Oh come on now, you should know, I'm a lot stronger than I look."

"Yeah? Well, you're not the only one with something up their sleeve!"

Shirou declared and then outstretched his other arm to form an open-palm in front of Ren and then after putting some Demonic power in his hand he fired a gust of wind that blows Ren back a bit through the air, though Ren quickly landed on his feet back where he was before they began, with now worse than some ruffles in his clothes and hair.

"Well now, since when did you learn Wind magic?" Ren asked, curious.

This time Shirou snorted. "Heh, I don't spend all my time training with you, sometimes I work on magic too and that was just one."

This past month, after defeating the Fallen Angels, Shirou saw how useful magic can be in a fight, after using it the kill the first three, Dohnaseek, Kalawarner, and Mittelt. And so whenever he could, he would practice his use of his Demonic power, after being able to use Respond Thunder without Boosting or the help of promotion he started practising other kinds of magic as well, one of them was Wind magic.

Ren got back into his stance and covered his body in Touki. "This should be fun." He was excited.

"Hey, Ren." Shirou called out, stopping their training for a moment. "I've had something I wanted to ask you for a while now, and I think this might be a good time."

Ren stopped and listened. "What is it?"

"That power your using, you know Touki, you think you could train me on how to use that?" Shirou requested.

Ren thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Afraid not, Touki is a form of Senjutsu, but while Senjutsu can be learned by other races besides Youkai, Touki is a one that is more simple to understand and use, the problem is time, Touki, as well as any other power I have, is something that'll take more than just ten days to learn how to use and master." Ren explained.

Shirou was irate by this new. "Damn it, and it really would've helped."

"Shirou, I think we should clarify what kind of training you should do." Ren said. "You know all there is to know about fighting, so there's no sense in going down that road again. To beat this guy you need power, you don't have the magic for that, and we don't have time to teach you something new so teaching is out, and you still haven't figured out all the secrets to your Sacred Gear, which is something that we can't train on because we wouldn't even know where to start on that, so that's out." Ren listed. "So what we'll be working on, is good old fashioned hard juggernaut training. Horse-power, heavy-weighted, cast iron, pile driving punches that'll have to hurt so much, they'll rattle his ancestors, every time you land a blow, it'll feel like they got hit by a fright-train."

Shirou was pumped up and loved the very phrasing of how he said that. "Let's do it!"

Ren covered his body with Touki.

Shirou held up his Boosted Gear.

They both got into a fighting stance.

They charged at each other.

 **[BOOST!]**

CLASH!

* * *

"Shirou-san!"

Night had already fallen before Shirou had realized it.

Hundreds upon hundreds of glittering lights filled the night sky.

He took a deep breath. His forehead breaming with sweat and every muscle in his body ached. His veins felt like they were filled with molten lava.

After spending morning till sunset training with Ren, working himself to the bone to get himself stronger and almost making himself too wounded and exhausted to even stand up or lift his arms, he had Asia heal him, spent a few minutes catching his breath and then jumped back into training, this time on his own. They decided it would be for the best if he spent half of the day training with Ren to build up his strength, power, abilities and the other half training himself with maximum intensity for as long as he can. Asia was here to fix him back up in case he falls apart.

"Just a few more… Seconds, Asia…" He panted out, wincing.

The former nun looked upon her friend, more worried than when they had first left the group to strike out on their own. "But…" She took a breath, steeling her nerves. "You've done enough. Your body won't last much longer at this pace. I know you think you know what you're doing, but you can't just-"

But Shirou raised his hand and waved her off.

"I said… I'm… I'm fine…"

Shirou's body seemed to lose balance…Then it slowly began to descend to the ground, his head hitting the ground before he blacked out.

"Shirou-san? Shirou-san!"

* * *

Training had been progressing.

Things had been going at a reasonable pace for the time being.

Though ever since Shirou left to train on his own the previous morning, the others had to focus on their own work.

Kiba and Koneko were currently sparring with each other as par Mika's regimen, Kiba was able to outpace Koneko in speed, which was the understatement of the year. The fact was Kiba could run circles around Koneko without her being able to see him coming.

The problem was his attacks were soft to her, definitely too soft to be of any concern to a Rook like Koneko with strong durability. And that wasn't his only problem, in terms of physical ability, he was lacking, one or two go blows from Koneko could take him out of the fight.

In short, he was a Glass Sword.

Then there was Koneko. Sure was strong, incredibly strong for someone as small as herself and her durability was on point to where she could tank most attacks she is hit by.

The problem with the was, she could barely land a hit on her opponents, she was someone whose style of fighting was too straight forward, punch and tank. But besides pure power and punching whatever is in front of you, she didn't have much skill or coordination. And not just that, whenever she saw an attack coming her way, her response was usually just tank it rather than trying to dodge it.

That wasn't a smart thing to do in a fight since there's no telling how strong to enemy will be or what kind of attacks they'll have, so just letting them hit you, and assuming you can muscle through it could end up being your undoing.

In short, she was a Moving Fortress.

The training they were doing was first: Sparring with each other so they would fully understand each other's way of fighting, be more accustomed to fighting together and fight an opponent that they can work on to better overcome their weakness. The second was: Train individually to better improve yourself in and build up both your abilities and mindset that will be ready for battle.

Since these two were the two physical fighters in the group. This training was extremely important to them.

Akeno was doing a different kind of training, she was working on basic training to better sync into her Queen trait.

It's a basic training method. It would be enough for her since it terms of how capable she is, she's arguably the Strongest in the Peerage, maybe even beyond Rias. The problem is that that's only in magic abilities, but as a Queen, she should have the magic of a Bishop, the speed of a Knight and the strength of a Rook. Even though her Bishop abilities are great, her Knight abilities are still shaky, and her Rook abilities are below standards except in defending. With that, she'll need to train to improve those attributes she's lacking, so that she'll be able to increase her stamina so that her power output would increase as well, that way she'll better sync with her Rook and Bishop traits.

Rias, however, wasn't training like the others, instead, she was just with Mika, seeing how well tactics and strategies for the game were going. And in her own words, she was strong enough without training. Something that annoyed Mika a bit.

* * *

Shirou panted heavily, sweat dripping from the sides of his face. He covered his mouth with his arm in order to keep the dust out of it.

"Just a little more…"

"Shirou-san, be careful!"

Shirou's expression morphed into frustrated annoyance. "Yeah, I get it, Asia!" He had heard the same thing from Asia at least eight times ever since they first arrived at this area a few hours ago. Just because Shirou had a broken arm and possibly a few ribs and needed to be healed, he had to deal with Asia's nagging about rest and safety. "I just need to push myself a bit further today."

"But Shirou-san, your body is already pushed to its limit." Asia said worriedly as she approached him. "You're still recovering from last night and this morning."

Shirou smirked, jabbing a thumb to his sweaty body. "Thanks to your healing powers, I'm fresh and ready to go."

"But it's not healthy to push yourself like this. You could get really sick. Twilight Healing only heals your physical injuries, not stamina-loss." Asia's puppy dog eyes may convince others, but Shirou was only mildly affected. "At least promise you'll be more careful?"

Shirou heaved a heavy sigh. "Alright fine, I promise." With that, Asia's expression brightened considerably. "Now, will you go ahead and just return to the others, Rias is probably worried about you being left alone with just me and I really don't want to have to go back and hear more of her complaining. Really, the sooner we get this whole thing done the better. I can't wait to rampage against the Chicken."

Asia frowned. "Shirou-san… Can I ask you a question?"

"Might as well, what is it?" Shirou responded, using the break against his breath. He leaned his back against a nearby tree for support. The cool evening air on his brow was also refreshing.

Asia was nervous and thought about how to say this, then she decided to just be open. "Why don't you want to train with the other's?"

"Huh? Why would I do that?" Shirou raised his head, raising a brow at Asia.

Asia's feet shuffled nervously in the dirt, the golden-haired girl refusing to meet Shirou's eye. "It's just, wouldn't training be easier if you worked with them?"

Shirou scowled. "I don't need their help, besides they need to train themselves before they're good enough to train with me."

"But Shirou-san, if we're all going to be fighting together then we should make an effort to work together too. If you keep doing everything on your own then how can you work well with the others when the fight begins?"

Shirou didn't answer, more like he was trying to think of one. He seemed bemused and even pensive in his silence for a good ten minutes. As if a part of him didn't want to answer.

"Shirou-san…?"

"It's a complicated answer, Asia." Shirou sighed out, scowling again. "…I just not once did I ever feel like I needed their help."

Asia was a little surprised by that. "You haven't? But why not?"

"Just think about it for a moment would ya." Shirou looked up at the sky. "For as long as I could remember, my life was a constant battle, everywhere I went it was one fight after another. I was okay with that, that was just who I was. But no matter what, I was fighting alone, I always fight alone, everything I did in life I did it without needing anyone's help. And yet, Rias, even though she says she's my master and I should be loyal to her, what possible reason could I have to be? She's never done anything for me and yet she expects my loyalty. I can't stand that."

Shirou tried to turn away, but Asia ran right back in front of him. "But that's not true, even if you think she's done nothing for you, I'm loyal to her because I've only experienced kindness from her and she even put me under her protection, plus the others all believe in her too."

"I don't care about what the others think, whatever reasons they have is their business." Shirou retorted. "Besides those guys are no different from sheep and Rias is the sheepherder, they only do what she says 'cause they literally don't know what else to do. You think I should care about their opinions when they're obviously biased towards her?"

Asia realized Shirou had a point and decided to retract that last statement.

"Anyway, it's easy for you because you don't see the bigger picture." Shirou explained. "Think about it, when I first meet her I had to fight a Fallen Angel with nothing but my fists and even though I almost died to win, Rias only showed up when it was over and what does she do? Make me her servant without my permission and asks for unearned loyalty. Next of all after I saved you from Freed her first reaction was to for me to get rid of you and her next one was for me to deal with this problem myself. And finally, when she does decide to help, she shows up after all the fighting is over, all the enemies are dead and you're already saved. Tell me after all that, what about any of that was helpful?"

Asia knew this wasn't going as well as she had hoped, she could understand where he was coming from when he puts it like that Rias hardly sounds like much help. But even so, she knew that despite how he felt he still needed them and more than that, they needed him. Asia knew without Shirou they had no chance of winning this game.

"Shirou-san, even if all that is true, you needed to understand something too."

"And what's that?"

"Even if she didn't help, the Chief wanted to help." Asia pointed out. "The fact that she came at all, is proof of that and now she needs our help that's why we're all training."

Shirou scoffed. "Not me, I am in no way doing this for her."

"I know, you're doing this for Mika-san, but you still want to win just as much as the Chief don't you?" Asia reasoned. "And you need their help to win this too, even you can't win this alone."

"I'm willing to risk everything trying." Shirou retorted.

"And what will you do when you reach Raiser?" Asia argued. "Even if you could beat him after training, could you still beat him after fighting his entire Peerage, while he's in perfect condition?" Asia then had a pleading look in her eyes. "Shirou-san, if you try to keep going on like this, you're going to break apart. I don't want to see that happen…" Asia's eyes teared up. "…I don't want to see you destroy yourself."

Shirou rolled his eyes over his head. Truth be told, those guy's in the Peerage could be strong enough to be of some help with the right training, and since Mika was the one that came up with their training regimens they're guaranteed to get the best possible training in these next ten days. And thinking about it reasonably, fighting sixteen opponents who could use magic, were used to fighting together and had more experience in this field of battle. That would be a tall order to pull off even for him.

Plus the pleading look in Asia's eyes was really starting to get on his nerves.

"And so, what would you even have me do anyways?" Shirou questioned.

"Show them that you're willing to open up to them." Asia responded, expression brightening up. Inwardly extremely relieved that Shirou was considering it.

"And how, dare I ask, do I do that?"

Asia's eyes were sparkling, and Shirou had the unpleasant feeling she already had something in mind.

"…What?"

* * *

"So, these are the Rating Games, huh…"

Rias was almost impressed with how intensely Mika examined the TV screen. The girl had been sitting on a crouched stance on her chair. Only six inches away from the screen. From a normal human's perspective, it would have appeared as some flashy TV show, that the flames crashing down on numerous foes were just some product of well-done special effects and that would have been incorrect.

Kiba and Koneko were still busy with their training while Akeno had finished up early and went to go begin preparing dinner.

Rias and Mika meanwhile had secluded themselves in the study, numerous books on strategy littering the floor and tables around them with videos of Raiser's previous Rating Games playing on the TV screen.

"So, have you gained any new insight into our enemy?" Rias asked.

Mika expressed annoyance at her question. "No, and that answer isn't going to change just because this is the seventh time you've asked. I need more time to analyse his play style."

"I really don't see why we would need a new strategy." Rias complained. "I mean, what was wrong with my original plan?"

"Rias, 'hit Raiser until he gives up' is not a plan." Mika shot Rias a glare out of the corner of her eye. "Why don't you go train like everyone else?"

"Because my power is at a high enough point." Rias answered confidently which still annoyed Mika. "As a noble Devil of the Gremory family and as a High-Class Devil, my power rivals that of even Raiser. For the upcoming battle, there's nothing I could improve on in such a short period of time anyway. Akeno and I together are already prepared. Kiba, Koneko, and Shirou, on the other hand, are inexperienced."

"And you've never participated in a Rating Game," Mika pointed out glueing her eyes back to the TV screen. "So you're basically on even ground, you're also inexperienced."

Rias could not consider a response to Mika's words. They were indifferent and the one saying them sounded distracted, mainly because Mika was more focused on the TV screen. But they were not necessarily inaccurate. After all, as a young Devil, Rias was not permitted to take part in Rating Games. There was still a notable gap in experience between her and Raiser. Her battles mostly ever comprised of sparring with Akeno or other members of the Gremory household's staff or dealing with Stray Devils that dared to infest her territory. There had been occasional scuffles with other nobles, but she had never been in an official confrontation involving her Peerage and that of another Devil.

"I'd feel more confident if your Brother would decide to cooperate with the rest of us."

"I told you not to worry, Big Bro knows what he's doing." Mika argued in a daze.

"But there's a lot at stake in this Rating Game."

"There's a lot at stake for him too. If we lose, I become Raiser's sex slave."

"Well, I don't know about "sex slave" but-" Rias paused. "Oh who am I kidding, Raiser _is_ that depraved. You would be royally screwed."

Mika paused… Both physically and the video. She didn't say a word.

"I mean… I don't mean "screwed" like…" Rias, however, quickly caught on looking aghast. "…I am sorry."

Mika didn't respond, pressing play to continue the video.

Realizing the young girl had no intention of speaking further on that particular subject, Rias sighed in relief. However, she could not help but feel restless, trying to vent her excess energy by pacing around the room.

"Shirou's like a new clock with too many parts." Rias groaned. "I have no idea what makes him tick."

Mika still said nothing.

"And every time I THINK I'm getting a good idea on how to talk to him, he shows even more parts that make it harder to understand him. You would think the fact that he has a stake in this would make him MORE cooperative with training, but no!"

Mika still said nothing.

"If anything, he seems to look at us as if we'll only get in his way for this upcoming game. How can we possibly work together as a team, if he doesn't even see our participation as a factor?!"

Mika still said nothing.

"I just…" Rias let out another frustrated sigh. "I just don't know what to do with him. I know he's not a terrible person. After all he did rescue Asia and he fights to protect her and you against anything, but sometimes he can JUST be…I don't even know! He's always so arrogant and acts like he can do everything on his own, even though it's extremely reckless and this time we really need him to win this battle!"

Mika still didn't say anything, but her silence seemed a little harsher somehow.

Eventually, Rias decided to stop pacing, turning to the younger Tsukiharu. "Look, you know your Brother better than anyone. How can I possibly get him to like me, or at the very least, work with me this one time?"

For a brief period of time, it looked like Mika would still persist in ignoring Rias. However, after seeing the genuine plea in Rias's gaze, Mika let out her own frustrated sigh, pausing the video on the TV.

"Look, Rias—"

"I know, your busy working on our battle strategy." Rias said pre-emptively. "But this is really important, for all of us as a group and despite the fact that we don't always agree, I don't want Shirou and the rest of us to be in a constant state of disagreement, if there's a way for us to work together better, then I want to know it!"

.

.

.

"You done?" Mika asked, unimpressed. "Or do you want to wait so you can interrupt me again?"

Rias took several deep breaths to calm down before nodding. "Sorry."

Mika sighed again. "I'll make this simple: The problem is, you assume he doesn't like you."

"…What?"

"You think it's hard to understand, but it's not." Mika continued. "Big Bro isn't training alone because he doesn't want to cooperate with you, he's doing it because he truly believes that the way he's training is the way that'll get him ready for the Rating Game, and he intends on keeping it that way."

"But what if whatever training he's doing, could be done better if he did it with the rest of us?"

"That's another problem you have Rias when the chips are down you don't believe in him at all."

Rias raised a brow at that statement. "What? That's not true at all."

"Yes, it is." Mika argued. "Think about it, ever since he became a Devil, no matter who he fought or who he defeated, every time he would fight someone you always thought he would lose. When he was a Human he beat a Fallen Angel but you thought he would lose next time. When he told you he was fighting a Priest you were surprised he even survived much less won. When the Fallen Angels were after him you assumed he would die, even though he beat all of them. And when you heard he was going to storm the Church to save Asia, you rushed in thinking he would lose even though he brought the place down on his own." Mika listed. "He won every time and yet you kept thinking he wouldn't."

"But…But I…" Rias tried to deny her claims. "But I was just worrying about him."

"Then what about right now?" Mika asked, "He told you he's been training for a month and you saw how much he'd improved and yet despite that, despite how much he believes he can do it, you still don't believe at all. Think about how frustrating it is to have someone show time and time again how strong they are and yet they won't even put a little faith in you."

Rias was at a loss for words. She never even considered anyone of this before now. But thinking back she started to wonder, had she really made Shirou feel that way. Was her attitude towards him gone from concern to a total lack of faith.

"Then, Then what do think I should do?"

"Look just, the next time Bro-For-One says he can handle something, then just believe he can, alright." Mika advised her. "Just believe, even if it's only a little."

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Enter." Mika stated in response to the knocking.

There was a soft click as the doorknob turned and the door was pushing open, revealing Akeno, dressed in her jersey and sweat pants. Contrary to her usual circumstances, her normal smile was strangely absent. In its place was a _stunned_ expression.

"Um… Chief? Mika?"

[Yes?]

"I was…Erm… Told to fetch you for dinner." The Queen said, her tone rather uncertain in her own words. "I…um…I'm not quite sure what to say."

"Did something happen in the kitchen?" Rias asked, brow raised. "Was there some sort of accident?"

"No no, nothing like that." Akeno answered. "It's more of… Well, you'll see it for yourself soon enough. I've already sent on of my familiars to fetch Kiba and Koneko. They'll be with us shortly."

Rias glanced at Mika.

"We may as well. It's not like this conversation will become productive anytime soon." Mika said.

But in truth, Mika was curious. Rias could see that well enough.

What was so bemusing that even someone as normally collected as Akeno would pause so many times?

It had to be something amazing.

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. Now first of all, in case you're wondering about what you saw at the beginning of the chapter, well. Remember the last arc on Chapter seven. It showed that when Shirou was ten, he joined a group of people after killing someone. This was one year later after that where he left. I wanted it to show insight into some of Shirou's background, like why he has habits like smoking and drinking. How he's so strong, and why he and Mika can live the way they do without concern.**

 **Anyways for the training, Shirou's doing to different kinds. By day he trains with Ren to get better at fighting and become stronger. And by night he trains on his own to become better at using his power and buffing up after working at maximum intensity.**

 **And Shirou wants to train alone because, well his Pride, but also because he can't let the others find out about Ren and since they're training twice as hard as they've been all this time, then it's the best possible training he can do.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more be sure to leave a review if you liked the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	11. New Understanding & Unbreakable Promises

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. And this is part two of the Mountain Training Arc, to be honest, I wanted to end this in one chapter but, after working on it, I realized that wasn't possible, so I split it into two chapters. This will be the longest chapter yet. Hope you all enjoy it**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **New Understanding And Unbreakable Promises**

* * *

Perhaps "amazing" wasn't the correct word. Rias realized later

"Odd" didn't quite describe it.

"Disturbing" was starting to seem a little weak at the moment…

Rias, Mika, Kiba, Koneko, Asia and Akeno had all taken their seats at the dining table, all of them staring in unified shock at the sight they beheld.

There were several loud _claps_ as several trays were set down right in the centre of the table, metal covers preserving the contents from foreign contaminants. A hand rested on the handle of one of the lids, as the owner of said hand started to take notice of the strange looks he was getting.

"Okay, I'll ask, what are you guys looking at?" Shirou questioned. His question was met by more awestruck stares. "Seriously, do I have something on why face or, What?"

"…Shirou?" Rias asked absentmindedly. "What are you wearing?"

Naturally, Rias was referring to the bright green bandanna Shirou wore to cover his hair, or perhaps the clear white apron used when cooking that Shirou wore over his front.

"A green bandanna and a white apron," Shirou answered obviously like he wondered why that was even a question. "Something wrong with your eyes?"

Rias closed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose, and sighed. "Okay, less obvious question: WHY are you wearing a green bandanna and a white apron?"

"So I don't get hair on the food or food on my shirt, still obvious." Shirou answered. "A chef has to have hygiene in their station y'know."

""Chef"?" It was only then that Rias's mind processed the undeniable fact in front of her. "You cooked?!" She hadn't meant to sound so horrified. It just came out that way.

Shirou was less than amused. "Yes. _I_ cooked. I felt like doing something to break some of the tension we all got from training." He glanced at Asia for a brief second before turning back to them. She gave a smile that said, it's going well. "And this is something that calms me down so, I figured I'd make dinner tonight."

Mika gave Rias a sharp elbow jab, darting her eyes between Shirou, the covered dishes, and Rias followed by a series of vague hand gestures.

Rias could only mouth "What" before Mika face-palmed. She again gestured to Shirou, then to the food, then to Rias, then to Shirou again. It was only after about five more iterations of this that Rias finally figured out what Mika was trying to say.

"Oh!" Rias squeaked before turning to her Pawn. "Um… Thank you, Shirou. This is very thoughtful of you."

Shirou shrugged. "Yeah well, this is one of the things I don't mind doing."

Rias turned to Mika with a "What now?" expression before Mika replied with a "keep going" series of gestures.

The other members seating at the dinner table stared dubiously. After a moment, they shifted their gaze to the banquet laid before them, hidden both in sight and scent on the metal saucers covered with lids.

Rias leaned over to her raven-haired friend sitting on her other side. "Akeno, do you know what he put in there?"

"No." Akeno whispered back. "He insisted on an empty kitchen before he started."

"Alright, so who wants to start this meal?" Shirou asked, grasping the handle of the lid firmly. "Mika?"

The little Sister paused. "Under different circumstances, I would _insist_ on going first, but right now it'll be more fun seeing their reaction for the first time." Her smile looked innocent, but inwardly she was greatly amused. "Why doesn't _Akeno_ try it first~?"

"Oh, who me?" Akeno asked, with a nervous smile. "I don't know. Kiba and Koneko have been doing far more physical activities~ They probably have much larger appetites~"

Shirou was starting to get impatient. "Would SOMEBODY eat something already, this took a while to make, I'd prefer it doesn't get cold."

"…No thanks," Koneko answered in a monotone. "I'm allergic to poisonous sludge."

"FUCK YOU, RUNT!"

Koneko's eye twitched.

"What she means to say is that while we would _love_ to take the first bite," Kiba quickly followed up, attempting to stop a fight from breaking out. "It _is_ the rule of the household that the Master should begin the feast."

"Yeah, the Chief should do it." Koneko agreed.

"Definitely the Chief~" Akeno added.

"I vote Rias too, if only because I want to." Mika confirmed, doing her best to not burst out laughing.

"Oh, come on everyone." Rias sighed out, feeling this was only getting worse before it got better. "Shirou took the time to make all this, for all of us, don't you think the least we can do is not assume the worst of it before we even see it?… It is good right?" She looked to Mika for confirmation.

The indifferent shrug Mika gave was not reassuring.

Given the fact that she had never even seen Shirou near a kitchen before, she didn't really have much to go on here.

However, the inference of such a possibility clearly did not earn her Shirou's favour, judging from his expression.

Rias then decided to turn to her right side and ask the person sitting there. "Asia, have you had Shirou's cooking before?"

Asia didn't expect that question, but her response was a smile and nodded. "I have."

Rias was inwardly relieved, then followed up. "And how was it, did it taste good?"

Asia put her hands together and had a pleased expression. "Yes, it was amazing. After he first brought me to his house Shirou-san taught me how to cook, after that he cooked to show me an example. When I tried it, it was the most delicious food I've ever tasted." Asia looked happy just by remembering, whether it was because of the food or because Shirou taught her, it was hard to tell.

"It's true." Mika added. "Bronwer Zeff makes food like you wouldn't believe, it's like being in an episode of Food Wars."

"Of course, who do you think I am? I put 110% in everything I do no matter what it is, and cooking is something I really enjoy so it's a given it'd do it here too." Shirou said with his usual Pride. "Now hurry up and eat already, I'll be really pissed if the food gets spoiled." But Rias could tell, he really wanted them to try it.

 _"Oh!"_ Rias finally realized what Shirou was trying to do.

On one hand, part of her was a little confused on how the Servant who had, already proclaimed that she and the rest of her Servants were far beneath him was now cooking dinner for everyone. On the other hand, she was also curious about what Shirou, Asia, and Mika were hyping up so badly. Though she knew Asia wouldn't lie to her, there is the chance that she just wasn't a picky eater having grown up at the Vatican, and to someone else, it wasn't as good as she thought. But as she previously said, it wouldn't be fair to immediately assume the worst. If she really wanted to find out, it was under the metal lid, she would have to take the lid off and she for herself.

"Well, here goes nothing." The redhead muttered to herself before tightly gripping the handle. With another dramatic pause, she ripped it away like a band-aid.

Everyone (Barring Mika and Asia) froze.

They were completely paralyzed by the scent that immediately wafted forth.

The heavenly scent that completely overloaded their brains.

"Lamb?" Rias wondered, swallowing the saliva that had gathered in her mouth.

"But we don't even have lamb in the fridge," Kiba noted in surprise. "Where did you even get this?" He asked, looking at Shirou. "Did you bring it with you before we came?"

Shirou rolled his eyes. "Don't be stupid, If I did that then It'd be a day old and would've gone bad." He responded, noticing Kiba still didn't get it. "Obviously, I got this particular lamb, by buying it like a normal person would."

"…How?" Koneko asked, eyeing the first of many revealed dishes.

"With a credit card."

"I think she means "How did you buy it when we're on a mountaintop, miles away from civilization"?" Rias clarified.

"I teleported." Shirou answered as if it was obvious. "You guys DO remember we can do that, right? Even with the herbs and ingredient we had in the fridge, I didn't have everything I needed, so I decided to stop by and pick up a few things. All I needed was a map to locate stores, which I pulled up on my cell-phone. Cost me some mobile data and I had to check at several places, but I'm none too worse for wear."

Rias raised a brow. "You teleported to go shopping?"

"Yeah, I don't know why you _insisted_ that for some reason we HAD to hike up this mountain, but I didn't feel like doing it again to go shopping, so I teleported." Shirou informed her a little annoyed.

"So, lamb huh…?" Rias swallowed again, lamb had always been one of her favourite meals, so to the point that when she was little, she would refuse to eat anything unless lamb was included. It was embarrassing when she thought back on it… And the way it had been prepared, well… It rivalled that of the entire Gremory family kitchen staff put together.

"Do you…Dislike it?" Shirou asked, unable to get a grasp on her reaction.

"No!" Rias said quickly, her high voice surprising even herself. She cleared her throat calming herself.

Mika picked up a tiny piece of lamb on a fork, holding it to Rias's face. "Why don't you try it?" An amused grin showed on Mika's face. "Come ooon~ it won't bi—" The wind was firmly taken from Mika's sails when Rias leaned over and closed her mouth over the fork, pulling the food inside. "Oh… Well, that's no fun."

Rias' eyes went wide. She paused not saying a word, as if she was in shock.

Her Servants (excluding, Shirou) waited on bated breath to hear her reaction to the food.

"Chief?"

"How's it taste?"

"…Is it good or bad?"

Asia was also curious to hear what she had to say. Shirou rolled his eyes, thinking they were treating this too much like a big deal.

"It's." Rias spoke, looking down at the meal in front of her. "I'm so surprised, I don't believe it." The others then looked at each other, then back to her.

Akeno raised a brow. "And, that means…"

"It was the most tantalizingly good lamb I have ever tasted." With how monotone and flat Rias's tone was, it was hard to tell if she was being serious. "I…I can't really explain it. All the flavours and the texture just come together so perfectly. I…I'm not sure if Shirou's even Human?"

The other members of the table turned to Shirou, waiting for a response. It seemed like the kind of thing he would take as an insult.

"Well, of course, I'm not Human, I'm a Devil. Remember?"

Again, it was hard to tell whether it was a joke.

"…It can't be that good." Koneko said dismissively, taking a bite for herself.

She froze the moment the lamb meat touched her tongue. Her pupils seemed to become tiny dots and her mouth became a flat line.

Asia leaned forward, looking at Koneko expectantly. "Well? How does it taste?"

Inwardly Koneko felt the taste overwhelm her. It was like nothing she had ever tasted before. The flavour danced on her tongue showing her pleasure she never knew that set her taste buds into heavenly bliss, her mind set adrift like she was swimming in a pool of reach and tender juices that was the very definition of perfectly made lamb. The way the texture of the meat exploded with wonderful taste as she bit into and it was the impossibly ideal mix of crunchy at the skin and yet soft at the centre.

No ordinary man could have made this, it could only be the work of a culinary God.

For about eight and a half minutes, Koneko was silent, only staring blankly forward at the wall opposite to her, her pupils dilated. It was as though she was waiting for some imaginary drum roll, anticipating the end.

"…It was alright." Koneko said, her features returning to normal.

Kiba shrugged. "Well, that's good enough for me." He lifted up the lid of another of the pans. "Oh! there are Eastern dishes here too!"

"Of course." Shirou said as he nodded his head. "It's common knowledge to prepare a diverse course in the case of more than one patrons." He smirked. "Eat up, before it gets cold."

"You heard the man! Eat up!" Mika cheered. "Grab whatever looks good before someone else gets it."

And not a single one of them hesitated further. Koneko wordlessly started gathering food from each dish for herself, scarfing it down like some wild animal. Mika likewise eats in her normal wild, reckless manner, afraid for when the banquet would eventually run dry. Kiba, Asia and Akeno were eating more reservedly, but showed great delight in the meal they took part in.

Rias only removed the focus from her own meal when Mika, seated beside her, nudged Rias with her elbow. The Crimson-haired Devil glanced at Mika, who gestured to Shirou with sharp glances.

"Pretty good, isn't it Rias?" Mika asked, just a _bit_ more loudly than necessary.

"Of course." The Red-haired Devil heiress wholeheartedly agreed, catching on. She turned to the Silver-haired chef. "Shirou, how did you get this good?"

"It's not-" Shirou glanced at Asia, waiting for some response. Asia gave a pleased nod, gesturing for Shirou to continue. "Well-I mean…I have my Pride, even as a chef, so I work as hard as I could to make it good," Shirou shrugged. "It's not too complicated. I just had a lot of time, necessity, and opportunity to improve my skill."

"That's not true~" Mika chimed in, with a mischievous smile. "Big Bro went to a cooking class three years ago to learn how to cook, and when he was there he kept going until he was the best in the class, after five months he entered the advanced class, became the best there and then even became a better chef then the teacher."

"STOP telling people that!" Shirou shot her a dirty look.

"But it's what happened~." Mika said still smiling.

The others were a little surprised, not that he would do that, that sounded like something he'd do, they were surprised by how little time it took.

Shirou scowled. "I…I just didn't feel satisfied until I was the best alright."

"Well, it really shows." Rias praised, smiling brightly. "We should have you cook for us more often~"

"R-Really?" Shirou asked, catching his brief satisfaction and excitement and quickly putting them away before answering. "Well, I guess I could do that, but…I don't know it would feel kind of weird, I mean I don't usually cook for more than a few people. And I'd appreciate it if you would ask first."

"Sorry…?" Rias answered bemused. She glanced at Mika for instruction. The younger sister made a sort-of "go on" expression with her hand. Then a complicated gesture that Rias interpreted to mean a reiteration of "Just go along with it." "Well, if I asked if you would like to cook for us more often, would you say yes?"

Shirou glanced at her, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, I do enjoy cooking, and it couldn't hurt." Shirou laughed a bit. "Besides, I also cook meals for the people who summon me in exchange for pacts."

Rias then stopped and turned to him. "Wait, that's how you succeeded in all your summons, by cooking for them?" Rias asked, shocked by this revelation.

Shirou shrugged. "Yeah, when I couldn't give them what they wanted, I made something for them to make up for it. After finishing they said "I'll make a pact if you can cook for me again" and that's how it went."

"That's it?"

Shirou raised a brow. "Yeah, what'd you think I did?"

None of them wanted to answer. Truth is they all had different theories as to how he kept getting some many pacts. Though all of them weren't anything pleasant. And while none of them expected he was just cooking for them. After trying this food, they knew this made much more sense they whatever they came up with.

Rias decided to put away that topic, and inside focus back to her previous conversation with her rebellious Pawn. "If you could, we'd very much appreciate it."

"I second that," Akeno agreed. "I wouldn't mind another taste~" Her suggestive tone did not go without notice.

Shirou chose not to respond to that but winced shortly afterwards. He placed a hand on his chest and another on his mouth. He coughed twice but nobody took much notice to it.

"With your skills, it wouldn't be abnormal if we paid you." Kiba said pleasantly.

"I don't need you to do that, after all, I never have to worry about money thanks to the Gremory family." Shirou said. "Besides, I said I didn't mind doing it, and it's fun for me, so personally it wouldn't really feel like I'm doing enough I need to be paid for. And if I ever do need extra cash, I can just make more by doing contracts, that's what I've doing anyways."

"An oddly honest person." Rias noted, feeling more and more confused about Shirou's character, and about how little she knew about him. "But I do feel bad about doing nothing…Perhaps we can find an alternative source of payment." Rias suggested, still wanting to pay him back for this. "I understand you don't want much from us, but surely there is something I could do for you if you want that is." Rias picked up a cup of tea that had been set out for her and took a nice, long sip.

"You could always let him bathe with you."

Rias did a spit take at Mika's suggestion.

Shirou on the other hand, winced again, his hand tightening over his heart as he coughed sputtered in pain. However, there was clearly something else there too judging from the out-of-character pained expression on Shirou's face and the red-tinted saliva that he hacked out from his mouth and into his hand.

Rias's eyes widened. "Did you just cough up blood?"

"No," Shirou answered quickly, his eyes darting to his golden-haired nun accomplice.

Rias cautiously extended a hand to Shirou. "Are you…Alright?" She tried to follow Shirou's gaze but didn't seem to put the pieces together.

"I'm fine Rias," Shirou answered, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "I've just…um…I just had something in my throat." Again, he glanced at Asia, darting his eyes back and forth between her and Rias, desperately trying to the blonde-former nun understand the message he was giving her. "Isn't that right, ASIA?"

Any distraction would have been appreciated.

"Oh!" Asia realized. in a split second panic, Asia made a decision on how to proceed- "HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Asia suddenly got up from her seat, laughing as loudly as she could and startling everybody. "Oh, maybe we should all go take a bath now!"

Shirou face-palmed while Rias stared in curiosity at her Servant.

"Is there something I should know?" The Crimson-haired Devil asked. "You two are acting pretty suspicious."

"Yeah, maybe she is." Shirou muttered while trying to think of a believable response. "I was just wondering, how training was going for all of you, yeah that's it."

Rias narrowed her eyes. "The fact that you seem to care only makes me more suspicio-OW!" Rias winced as Mika pinched her on the arm, shaking her head fervently. "I mean, you're a lot more curious about what we're doing then normal. You usually don't care about what we're doing, let alone how it's going."

"That's because normally, it's not my business." Shirou clarified his reasoning. "But this time, it's important 'cause we got the game coming up."

Rias rubbed the bruise that Mika had pinched into her arm. "But still…"

Shirou coughed into his fist again, this time a noticeable amount of blood was oozing from the corner of his mouth. It was a lot less hard to miss before Shirou wiped his mouth.

"Okay, Shirou now I'm a little concerned." Rias said. They had often disagreed on most manners in contrast to the abnormally peaceful dinner, but bleeding from the mouth just wasn't normal.

"Look just, never mind okay!" Shirou was now desperate to change the subject. "Let's just… Do what Asia said and hit the baths, that's the best thing to do after dinner." He suggested.

"I dunno," Mika decided, stretching her arms tiredly. "I've been doing fine without a bath the past few days. I see no reason why that would change now."

"Oh my Lord, that's what that smell was…!" Rias may have had a response somewhere in her mind, but the moment Mika finished speaking, she could not help but shudder and gag at what horrid filth could have been coating the young girl beneath her clothes.

"Mika," Shirou said sharply. "That's disgusting. You really need to start taking better care of yourself and that includes hygiene."

"Ugggghhhhhh!" Mika groaned. "But that's so booooriiiing! Plus I'd have a lot less time for Anime and Manga if I wasted precious minutes to bathe myself."

Shirou looked her in the eyes, not budging on this. "Mika Tsukiharu, you are taking a bath right this instant."

"But I don't wannaaaaaaaaa!" Mika whined, rocking back and forth in her chair. "Baths suck!"

"We wouldn't be having this argument if you just bathed back home when I told you." Shirou reminded her.

"But I had some much Anime to watch back then." Mika defended herself.

"This isn't a request. You are getting into that bath." Shirou ordered.

"No!"

"Mikaaa!"

"No!"

"Would you just—"

"Nuh-uh!"

Shirou sighed, "Look, you can't just keep skipping baths! It's not good for you. Come ooon, you'll be bathing with Rias, Asia and the others, you know? Get to know them better?"

"Well, we are overdue for a bath episode, and there will be Ecchi scenes."

"Mika!"

"Ugh, but I don't wanna bathe with them! They (Except for Asia) suuuuuuck!" Rias and the others tried to pretend Mika hadn't just insulted them. Mika leaned over in her seat and wrapped her arms around Shirou's waist, nuzzling her head against Shirou's upper stomach/middle torso. "Really, it's sexist to presume I would get along with them just because we're girls bathing together." She smirked mischievously. "I would actually much rather bathe with _you,_ Big Bro~ You're the only person I feel comfortable with seeing my Naked body."

At first, Rias expected Shirou to say no or get angry, but instead, the older Brother simply scowled.

"So that's what this is about?" His expression seemed oddly serious.

Mika looked up at him, her eyes glinting less mischievously than they were before. Maybe even a little afraid. "Yes…" What made the conversation stranger was how Shirou's expression softened further. "I mean, there are two baths… Can't we just this time? Please? I _really_ don't want to get Naked with the others."

 _"So, it really was because of that…"_ Shirou thought to himself.

Glancing between Mika and the girls, Shirou couldn't help but sympathize.

Shirou rubbed the back of his neck. "Geez… You're really starting to get too old to be bathing with your older Brother." He buried his face into the palm of his left hand. "Just finish eating, I'll make sure the water is the right temperature. Heat is good for your joints on chilly nights like this." Shirou took off his apron and folded it up in front of everyone. "It's been nice-not really-chatting with everyone, but I think I'll be getting Mika's bath ready."

Shirou turned to leave-

"Wait," Kiba said, stopping him. "If you and Mika are bathing together, then what am I supposed to do for a bath? There are only two baths and the ladies lay claim to one of them."

"Well, that's just the thing I wanted to talk to you guys about." Shirou said, staring at the rest blankly. "I have no intention of letting any of you be within a proximity of my Naked Sister, so we'll be taking our baths separately."

"But that still doesn't answer my question." Kiba responded.

Shirou sighed. "Look just… Just wait till we're done, then you can use it yourself, alright?" Shirou made a compromise. "We won't take that long away, so don't worry about it."

Having said that, Shirou walked off, Mika still clinging to his waist as she was dragged along with him.

The others all watched them leave, still feeling as though there were questions that weren't yet answered.

"…Well, that was unexpected." Akeno said what they were all thinking.

* * *

"Aaaah~" Rias couldn't help the relieved sigh that escaped her mouth. "It feels like all the stress is melting away~"

"There is nothing better than an outdoor bath," Akeno agreed.

After the events of the past several days, this felt like the first time she had actually relaxed in a long time. Shirou certainly didn't help things. Between his unpredictable behaviour and then his strange behavior, later on, she just wasn't quite sure what to do. But Shirou wasn't there, it was just her, Asia, Akeno, and Koneko. The GOOD Devil Servants.

"I'm surprised dinner went as well as it did." Rias admitted.

"Shirou is a difficult person to pinpoint," Akeno agreed again. "Sometimes he's nice, other times he's rude. I guess it makes things more interesting that."

"Interesting"?" Rias wondered. "I wouldn't really agree on that. It just makes him harder to understand, regardless of how much time passes I can just never guess what he's thinking. He is both unique and unpredictable, that's not a good combo."

"Still it was nice of him to make dinner for us."

"Maybe, but still…" Rias sighed out.

"Did you dislike it?"

"It was delicious, but I don't want to assume anything yet, because I'm pretty sure I'd just be wrong again."

"Maybe Shirou-san was genuinely trying to make himself closer to everyone." Asia suggested meekly. "Maybe he wants to try and be a nicer person."

Rias and Akeno considered this thought for a few seconds but neither one of them looked convinced, not taking notice to the former nuns saddened expression.

Rias turned to Asia, giving her response to that suggestion. "That would be the ideal thought, but personally I doubt it." Rias then placed a gentle hand on Asia's shoulder. "Asia, I know you think the world of Shirou for saving your life, but still you of all people should know. Shirou isn't the kind of person who would just do kindness for kindness sake, I'm guessing there was a different reason, whatever it was I don't know."

"That's not true!" Asia cried out. "He saved me!"

"I'm not denying that, but the circumstances were different back then."

"That's not true." Asia denied, becoming more upset. "Rias—" It was noted that Asia didn't address her as "Chief". "—I know Shirou-san is someone you have trouble understanding, but he really is a good person. If you just got to know him more and tried being nicer to him, I think you could actually get along."

"Asia, I don't doubt he's a good person," Rias admitted. "But, that's still only one side of him."

"But still, Shirou-san wants to win as badly as we do. He also has something really important riding on this game, you know that just like I do."

 _"Mika."_ Rias recalled. The girl a strange one, and that was an understatement, but Rias knew she was precious to Shirou. And similar to her brother, she was also someone impossible to understand. She wasn't sure what to make of the younger sister or her relationship with her brother. "They do seem close, don't they?"

"Shirou-san won't say it, but Mika-san means the world to him…" Asia looked down sadly. "…If we lose, and if Shirou-san loses Mika-san, then I don't know what will happen to him…I know Shirou-san knows this and he's trying hard to work with you, so couldn't you show him that you want the same? Pleeeaaaassse, Rias?"

"But he's the one who said he didn't need our help."

"Only with training, but not in the Rating Game." Asia argued back.

Rias realized she had a point there, while Shirou insisted on training by himself, he never really said he would fight in the Rating Game alone.

"Shirou was really nice to all of you tonight, remember?" Asia pointed out. "Surely the accounts for something with you."

"…I consider that to be a one-time thing." Koneko noted. "I still think he's kind of a jerk."

"You too, Koneko?" Asia asked, a betrayed expression on her face.

Akeno looked over to him. "Ara, Are you sure you don't feel that way just because he called you runt?" She asked teasingly.

Koneko's eyes twitched. "…What of it?"

"To be fair, you called his cooking poisonous sludge, before even looking at it." Akeno pointed out.

"That was pretty mean of you, Koneko." Asia agreed.

Koneko submerged the bottom half of her face in the water and avoided eye contacted.

"Back to what we were talking about before," Asia said, looking at Rias. "I know Shirou-san will fight with us in the game, if you just talk to him, you would know that."

Rias was thinking of a response, which was hard when the puppy dog look in Asia's eyes was becoming increasingly unbearable.

She inhaled deeply, remembering she did promise Mika she'd try to believe in Shirou.

"I don't know… I think you should give it a shot, Chief." Akeno said, earning a perplexed look from both Rias and Koneko. "Shirou is disobedient, but he has a strong will and a great amount of both power and potential, both his feats and that little scuffle against Raiser back at the clubroom prove that. And as you said before, under the right circumstances he could be the key to winning the whole Rating Game if you two could cooperate. Even if you don't share the same reasons for wanting to win, you both still want to win in general, so what's the harm?"

Rias considered their arguments carefully. Even if she agreed to Asia's request, there was no guarantee that she and Shirou could even reach an agreement to being with. Mika had advised her to believe that Shirou could handle training on his own, so if she brought up the subject of wanting to have him train with the others, she was worried he'd take that as her still doubting him.

However, if things did go well, and he did agree, Shirou would be an even greater help in battle, and personally dealing with him was much more preferable then dealing with Raiser. There was still nine days before the Rating Game. Ample time for them to be able to reach some kind of understanding.

Between this train of thought and Asia's pressuring puppy-dog stare, Rias could not help but let out a defeated sigh.

"Very well." She said, Asia stared with new-found hope as Rias decided to continue with her statement. "I will _talk_ to Shirou. Whatever the outcome is will depend on where things go from there."

"Oh, thank you Chief-san." Asia cheered. "You won't regret it!"

"I hope your right…"

"…I put my vote on the whole conversation going south." Koneko muttered under her breath, earning a stern gaze from the clubs Vice-President.

"I hope everything is going alright with Mika-san." Asia said almost praying. "She can be rather difficult with baths." Asia had lived with the Tsukiharu's long enough to learn that well. A bar of soap can be surprisingly painful when thrown at one's eye and, for a girl who never leaves her room, Mika had a mean pitch.

Rias opened her ears to listen. "Well, I don't hear any screaming, so I don't think he's having issues."

"I can't help but wonder what exactly they're doing over there." Akeno said. "It's so quiet." She smirked. "Maybe something a little taboo~" However. from the shock-pale expression on Asia's face, Akeno determined she might have gone a bit too far. "I-I was just kidding Asia. I don't think Shirou's like that."

"…As far as we know." Koneko pointed out. "Have any of us ever seen how they act together when we're not around?"

The four women took a good, long pause, letting that thought sink in.

* * *

"You would think those idiots could talk more quietly." Shirou complained he sighed. "At least their quiet now…"

"I'm more upset you decided to wear swim trunks to the outdoor bath." Mika complained. "I was hoping for some Nude CGs to save in my brain."

Behind her, combing his shampoo-lathered hands through Mika's hair, Shirou scowled. "First of all: I wear these when I bathe all the time, it's a preference of mine. Secondly: Why do you have to make everything awkward and uncomfortable?"

"Come on, Broreo-"

"That one doesn't work."

"I'm running out of material! Give me a break!" Mika cried. "Besides, would you rather have me make perverted jokes or spend this time with nothing to focus on but my Naked body?"

Shirou turned his face away but said nothing. "I don't get why you couldn't just let Rias and the others take care of you. This looks totally wrong from an outsiders perspective. I'm here with my completely Naked underaged Sister."

"And it's _awesome,_ " Mika sighed wistfully, a lewd and pleased smile on her face.

Shirou gave her a soft rap on her head with his knuckles. "I really can't believe how easy-going you're being about this. Do you even know the situation you're in?"

"Ummmm… I'm going to be in an awesome fight, with cool and flashy power in it~?" Mika wondered.

Shirou was not amused. "Be serious, if we lose, you'll end up under Raiser's control. Do you not understand that?"

"Well, I was the one who made the bet, so yes, I do." Mika answered. "Relax. We have this in the bag, Brottousai-OW!" Shirou pulled at two of Mika's hairs.

"I mean it! Don't you realize what Raiser will do to you the moment he has you at his mercy?"

"Please~" Mika waved it off. "I'll cut off his balls if he tries to do anything to me. I've watched a lot of snuff and horror genre hentai. I know the best ways the hurt him if he tries something."

.

.

.

"I've never more proud of or more terrified by anything you've said up to this point." Shirou said, his expression dead-serious. "But seriously, this is the first fight you've ever been in, don't you realize how much that worries me, I can never stand the idea of exposing you to danger."

 **Play OST One Piece - Battle Scars**

"Would you stop being such a worrywart?" Mika asked, sighing. "As a member of this Peerage this was always going to happen someday, it's just sooner then we thought. But I'm still ready for this, just have some faith."

"I do have faith." Shirou said, without a trace of doubt. "No one believes in you more than me, you're a better strategist than anyone and in a fight, you're way stronger than any of those Porn-Stars." Shirou then gritted his teeth. "But still in a fight, there's no telling what might happen, I just want you to stay safe."

"I know you do, and I know you worry. But how do you think I fell?" Mika asked, upset. "I feel that way all the time, for years you've always been out there fighting anybody who'll come, I always hated that I couldn't do anything but hope you would come back safe. I want to be here fighting with you, that's why I became a Devil in the first place." Mika's gaze then turned hard as steel. "Besides, I still worry about you now, I hardly missed that little spectacle at dinner."

"You saw that…" Shirou asked turning away. The tables have turned in a 180-degree fashion.

Mika turned completely, jabbing her sharp finger into Shirou's chest. "You're not nearly as slick as you think you are, Shirou." Shirou averted his gaze from his Sister's bare chest. Mika frowned. "You know, you can't look away forever. Your neck will eventually get stiff like that."

"I'm fine… I just ate too many tomatoes and now I cough red saliva."

"You head into the forest in the afternoon and come back late in the evening and you think I don't know what you're up to." Mika smiled, raising a soft hand to her brother's cheek. "Come on Bro, even you know I'm smarter than that."

"It's no big deal." Shirou scoffed. "It's just some lightweight work. Get the blood pumping and stuff."

"Shirou, we both know you never do anything "lightweight"." Mika sighed. "You're going to burn yourself out at this rate."

"You sound exactly like Asia."

"Maybe that means we have a point."

"As you can see, I'm fine." Shirou said, gesturing to his uninjured body. "Not a scratch on me."

"On the outside." Mika agreed. "But I can see Asia's work clear as day. It's extensive and frequent. The exhaustion is clear on your face and I can see rigidity in your muscles. You're not giving your body enough time to rest Shirou, and at this rate, it's going to burn out."

"I'll rest once the battle is over."

"Keep working like you are now and you won't survive until then." Mika gazed into her brother's eyes. "Shirou, whether you like it or not, we're in this together. I'm going to fight, and I need you to have my back on this."

"Of course, I do." Shirou swore.

"You do know what I'm talking about Shirou, we need them."

Shirou let out another sigh, expecting this. "I was wondering when you would bring this up."

"That's because you know it's the truth." Mika added, she shook her head, for once letting a faint exhaustion show on her face. "This is a battle you can't win alone, even if we use my strategy none of it will matter unless we're in this together. You're the only one who can beat Raiser, despite what Rias says, I know she knows that too. The fact is, we need their help, and they need our help too."

"I know that already." Shirou responded. "I've already talked about this before, at this point, I'll try whatever I can if it means we can win the game.

"That's good, because I know we can win as long as we have you." Mika said softly. She leaned forward wrapping her arms around Shirou and resting her head on his chest. "I know you can beat him, and I know you can beat anyone. I'll _always_ believe in you, and I believe we'll be able to fulfil our dream…"

Shirou's gaze softened. He snaked his arms around his Sister's waist, cradling her in his chest.

"I know…" He said, in a soft whisper. However, his eyes were directed, not at her. But at her back. "I promise I'll make it happen."

Mika flinched when his fingers accidentally brushed against a crease in her pale skin as if experiencing pain. Shirou adjusted his arms, avoiding not just that mark, but the numerous other ones that littered her back. She had numerous jagged marks on her back that scared deep into her, they all looked years old, but not properly treated, and what's worse, they looked like the product of torture, as if someone actively tried to cause her lasting pain.

But as bad as the state her body was in, it was nothing compared to that of Shirou's body. Shirou right now wasn't wearing his usual bandages, so what was hidden under them and what was on his body was finally revealed. The grim truth was, unlike Mika, his entire body was littered with scares, he only had a small margin of unmarked flesh. Numerous jagged marks on his back like Mika, but numerous others that littered his body. Crescent-shaped ones, X's, crosses, countless other shapes formed by the scarred flesh on his physical form. Thin lines, far more faded, also on his thighs and upper arms.

Near his heart, there was only one scar.

There were plenty of others on his chest, but this one was only two centimetres above his heart.

For what felt like the longest time, Shirou held his beloved Sister in his arms tightly, his head lower melancholy. A sad small making its way to his face.

"I'm sorry…" Shirou muttered. "I know you don't like having to see these, are they hard to look at."

"Um." Mika shook her head. "No, I don't mind them and I don't mind you seeing mine." She gestured to her scares. "I'll bear any pain, for your sake."

"Yeah, it's the same for me." Shirou tightened his grip. "No matter what, I'll bear any pain, for your sake."

The two siblings remained locked in their embrace, unaware that they were being watched…

 **Music Off**

* * *

"…Well?"

"Come on, you two." Akeno complained. "We can't see up there! What's going on?"

The idea's beauty was its simplicity.

Have Koneko the Rook and Akeno the Queen lift Rias and Asia on their shoulders.

It had been suggested jokingly at first, but after several minutes of the two talking too quietly from them to hear, the four girls could not help but feel curious. Individually, they had viewed how one sibling or the other acted around other people, but they had never been able to truly observe the relationship mechanics between the two siblings.

Rias was strong, but just like Asia, she was unused to physical labor nor did she have any form of enhancement.

Thus, having Akeno and Koneko lift her and Asia up to peer over the boundary separating the two baths seemed like the best idea.

The two girls spent five minutes without saying a single word and the girls at the bottom were beginning to feel ever-so curious and far more impatient.

"Come on, Chief." Akeno pleaded. "Spill, what are they doing over there?"

"Let us down." Rias's voice was abnormally faint. Granted, they were peeping and stealth was preferable, but something about her tone wasn't right. "Please… Just let us down, Akeno."

"…Asia-sempai?" Koneko looked up at the blonded-haired Devil, noticing a complete lack of response overall.

Akeno and Koneko exchanged looks, wondering what could have rendered Rias so silent and still.

Begrudgingly, they set down their comrades gently on the ground, allowing them to regain their footing.

"A-Are you two alright?"

Asia's eyes were beginning to turn red and hot, salty tears flowed from her eyes. Her expression was one of shock, disbelief, and of course sorrow.

Rias, on the other hand, just seemed at a loss for words. Every few minutes, she would open her mouth and raise her head, trying to say something, but no words came out and she would immediately let her head fall into her open hand. Her expression was hard to read, however.

"We weren't here." Rias decided. "As far as Shirou or Mika are concerned, none of us was in this bath and we didn't see or hear anything that transpired on the other side of that wall. Tonight never happened, are we clear?"

Rias was shaken, a fact in itself Akeno found herself having difficulty believing. "What did you guys see over there?" Akeno asked, causing Asia to stare, still tear-stricken, and Rias to stare, her expression warping back and forth between extreme guilt and extreme shock.

"Something I get the feeling we weren't supposed to…" Rias sauntered past her friends, making for her towel in its cubby by the entrance to the bath. "Tell Shirou I want to have a word with him in private when you have the chance." Rias wrapped her body in her towel and walked back indoors.

"How do I convince him?" Akeno asked, but Rias was already gone.

And then silence descended. Koneko had gone over, and tried to console Asia, something made very difficult by how little she knew of the source of the girls' worries…

Whatever the case, she had some convincing to do.

* * *

"So glad you could make it, Shirou."

"Yeah well, I was curious to what this was about." Shirou responded. He shoved his hands in his pocket, staring at the Crimson-haired girl in her negligee. "Akeno said you wanted to talk and to wait until everyone else was asleep…Which was pretty weird mind you, but whatever, so what'd you want to talk about?" Shirou then looked at her raising a brow. "And why are you wearing a negligee?"

Rias crossed her arms behind her back. "I just wanted to talk," She gestured to the door of the living room. "Walk with me outside for a moment."

Shirou titled his head a bit to the side. "…Are you gonna strip again?"

She smiled a bit. "Don't be so hung up on that, I don't do that for no reason."

Shirou looked at her with half-lidded eyes. "The amount of times I've seen you Naked for less than normal reasons, make's me a little unconvinced."

"Were just going to go to the gazebo next-door." Rias assured him. "I was hoping you would be open to getting some fresh air."

"If that was it you wouldn't have waited until everyone else was asleep."

"Okay fine, I just wanted to go somewhere private, so we could talk. No strings attached. Just talk. You can leave whenever you want."

Shirou raised a brow but looked a little amused. "Calm down Rias, I just wanted to be sure, but I still want to know what you want to talk about, alright let's go."

"I'm glad you feel that way, come with me." Rias walked ahead.

With that matter taken care of, Rias proceeded to lead Shirou outside. Anyway from any prying ears.

Compared to most outdoor structure he had previously encountered, he couldn't help but marvel at the craftsmanship used to create the doomed structure supported by at least a dozen stone pillars.

Rias walked up to the edge of the pavilion, resting her hands on the stone fence separating her from the wilderness. A soft wind planted a gentle kiss on Rias's face, her hair danced slowly in the breeze.

"It's really nice out here…" Rias commented, noticing the complete silence emanating from Shirou. "Nights like these are among my favourite, you know? I look out at that starry sky and feel the wind against my skin, and I can't help but feel relaxed."

"I suppose I can agree on that, starry nights are something I like too, for different reasons." Shirou agreed, then turned to Rias. "But aside from that, did you really call me out here to talk about something private? Or did you just want to exchange small-talk?"

"Can't it be both?"

Shirou thought for a moment. "Well, I guess that would be I nice change of pace. You're usually so serious."

On a different occasion, Rias would have taken that as an insult, but now it just amused her. "Alright, then I'll get straight to the matter at hand: The Rating Game."

"Yeah, what about it?" Shirou asked as he moved forward, taking a spot right next to Rias and gazing out at mother nature.

"We only have nine days left now," Rias said. "And we're still nowhere near ready."

"Well, of course, you're not." Shirou said like it was obvious. "It's only been a day, what'd you expect?"

"That's not what I meant." Rias said, turning to face him. "Asia's not getting the training she needs because she's always going off with you doing… You know what."

"You know what"?" Shirou raised a brow. "What do you think we do together?" Rias didn't answer his question and just looked away with a blush.

"I-I mean she's not receiving the education she needs because she's always off with you." Rias clarified. "You've gotten a lot of the basics down at least, but Asia's still young and inexperienced in combat."

"She's not suited for fighting anyway," Shirou retorted to that statement. "She better off just healing and besides you'd be crazy for even thinking of having her fight anybody."

"Wouldn't the same thing apply to Mika." Rias argued, immediately realizing what she said and regretting it.

Shirou took a deep breath, laying his arms on the stone railing and resting his head on top of those. It was hard to tell what was going on in his head at the moment.

"Some of you might think that, but she's more ready then you think." Shirou defended. "Now then, hurry up and tell me what you wanted to say."

"I need you, Shirou."

 **Play OST One Piece - A Dark Past + A Path To The Sun Combination**

"…" Shirou looked up and turned his head to Rias. "Rias… What are you talking about?"

"Just what I said." Rias said. "I need you by our side if we're going to have any hope of winning."

Shirou blinked. "Oh, _that's_ what all the fuss is about?" He asked as if he expected something else. "Well there wasn't really I need to wait this long, I already intended on fighting with you guys."

"Look, I know you have your Pride, and we don't…" It was Rias's turn to stare blankly. "…What?"

Shirou stood up straight, rubbing the back of his neck, a tired expression on his face. "I'm not against it, for the sake of winning the game, and besides, Mika and Asia have been telling me I need to get more used to working with you guys anyway."

"Asia"?" Rias wondered. "She tried to convince you to work with us?"

"Yeah," Shirou confirmed, not noticing Rias's surprise. "She told me I should break the ice since everyone was on edge, that's why I made dinner."

 _"Clever girl."_ Rias thought to herself, praising the former nun for her part in all this. However, out loud she said. "I see. To be honest, I'm relieved you agreed so willingly."

"Don't know why you would be," Shirou responded. "It's almost like you think I hate you guys or something."

Rias frowned. "Well, you did look down on us."

"Personally, I don't think I said anything that wasn't true and don't act as you've never looked down on me before." Shirou retorted with narrowed eyes. Rias knew what he was referring to, and decided to not go further on the subject. "Besides, regardless of how the match goes, I have to beat Raiser, if it means you guys can handle some of his Harem then it's worth working with you guys. No matter what I have to win."

On some level, Rias felt somewhat insulted by Shirou's continued disrespect and dismissal of her Servants' power, but at the same time, she couldn't help but smile. "You really care about her that much, huh…?"

"What?"

"Nothing."

Shirou dismissed her odd behaviour. "Bottom line is, I'll be the one to take out Raiser."

"I'd like to believe you." Rias' smile then vanished. "But there are a lot of things to worry about in the upcoming game you know," She sighed. "A long time ago the mystical beast, Phoenix, was looked upon by humans as a bird that governs life. It was so looked upon that it left its legend in many countries in the human world where it's told that the tears of the Phoenix can heal any wounds, and the blood that flows within its body can give eternal youth to those that drink it. But there was also another clan that is different from the mystical beast Phoenix. They are the Devils that had the rank of Marquis and were counted as one of the 72 pillars. The Phoenix from the Devils' side. The humans named the Devils' Phoenix as Phenex to distinguish it from the mystical beast Phoenix. However, the mystical beast Phoenix has the same ability as Raiser's clan. In other words immortality. That's the opponent we must fight against.

Shirou scoffed. " _Immortal_ and _unbeatable_ are to different things." Shirou then wondered. "Besides I thought all Devils were immortal anyway?"

Rias shook her head. "We are known for incredibly long life-spans, but Devils are far from immortal, Shirou. Only the Phenex family seem to be exempt from this and, what's more, they are capable of regenerating any wound made on their bodies. Physically-speaking, they are just about invincible."

"You know, I remember at some point, you said Akeno was invincible." Shirou reminded her. "And I'll say the same thing I said then, no one in this world is invincible, there's always a way to win, you just need to find it."

"Unfortunately, there aren't many ways to accomplish that." Rias said. "Eight wins and two losses. This is the record that Raiser has at the official "Rating Game". He fought ten times and won eight matches. He lost two of the matches on purpose as kindness to one of the households he is close to. In reality, he won all of his matches. He already became a candidate to obtain a title in the official game."

Shirou scoffed. "That just means he's a sell-out, nothing more."

"You're missing the point. Raiser has never actually lost a match."

"Yeah, well neither have I!"

"You've never _played_ a Rating Game before."

"And he's never fought _outside_ of one." Shirou argued. "I fought my whole life and from the first day I raised my fists, I've never once fallen. And believe me, when I say, my legendary winning-streak won't be broken by some Bird-man who thinks with his balls instead of his brains." Shirou declared without doubt. "So stop worrying, You've got the Red Dragon Emperor on your side and the best-damned strategist in the world."

Rias stared. "We're talking about Mika, right?"

"Of course I'm talking about Mika?" Shirou grumbled in annoyance. "Even since we were kids I've always known no one could hold a candle to her when it comes to strategy."

"You know about her talent?"

Shirou nodded.

"Well, for what it's worth though, she's rather diligent. I'm not sure what she's planning, but she seems to be putting a lot of thought into it."

"If she's that invested, then be sure to expect something either flashy and/or stupid."

"You don't think it will work?"

"No, it'll work for sure, it'll just be flashy and/or stupid." Shirou's gaze drifted towards the night sky, but Rias detected a faint sense of admiration from Shirou's expression. "She's weird, but she's also really good at putting things together. If there's anyone who can pull a victory out of a hat, it's her."

"You have a lot of faith in her."

"Of course I do. You gotta believe in your family. Otherwise, no one will." Shirou said. "Besides, I got a lot riding on this."

Rias didn't push the matter. "Yes, I suppose you do…"

However, the ensuing silence was cut short when Shirou asked a question.

"That actually reminds me." He said, receiving a curious look from Rias. "There's something I've been wondering for a while now."

"What is it?"

"Why are you so opposed to this? I could understand if it was just Raiser, but you seem opposed to getting married in general." Shirou scratched his head. "Wouldn't it be something that could be a huge benefit to you socially and financially in the long-run, so why not take advantage of it? Don't you nobles go for stuff like that?"

Rias sighed, leaving Shirou with the impression that he had upset her. "Shirou, do you ever feel like people don't see you for you?"

It was then that Shirou took his turn to look bemused. "That's a pretty existential question, Rias." Shirou said, this timing looking like he was trying to find the right words to say. "I dunno. I think deep, I might've felt that way, but really everyone feels like that at some point." However, he didn't answer "No".

"The proposal made was not to me. It was made to the heiress of the House of Gremory. Because of my title, I'm not even recognized as "Rias". The House of Gremory will always come before me, and I've learned to adjust to it and make decisions accordingly."

"I don't know, life without freedom seems like a raw deal to me." Shirou retorted. "Besides, if you hate it so much, why do you stay?"

"I Don't hate it." Rias responded." In fact, I feel proud of it. However, this is also something that is a burden to me. Everyone looks at me as Rias from the Gremory. I can't have them look at me simply as Rias. That's why I'm enjoying my life in the human world. They don't know about the Gremory the Devil household. Everyone looks at me as who I am. I really like that feeling. I never felt something like this in the Devils' society, and I never will from now on as well. The only time I can enjoy my life as myself is when I'm in the human world. That's why moving to Kuoh was felt perfect to me." Rias smiled but had a trace of sadness. "It was just me, my classmates, my Peerage…"

"But deep down, it was just a different place, but a similar problem."

Rias was bemused, at what Shirou just said. "What?"

"Don't pretend it's not true." Shirou looked at her seriously. "In truth, what you wanted was for someone to see you as just "Rias". But even in Kuoh, though you're not a noble, instead you're an idol and everyone only looks at you from afar, either admiring you or undressing you with their eyes. And in the end, everyone still just looks at you as "Rias Gremory", the same thing you wanted to get away from." Shirou then looked her in the eyes. "And deep down, even your Peerage is like that."

"What? That's not true—" Rias denied.

"Then answer this." Shirou interrupted. "Why do they never call you by your name?" Shirou's question stopped Rias in her tracks. "I don't know what the circumstances were for them to join you, but you can't deny. Even though you see them as family, they see you as a Master. And even though you've gotten closer to them than anyone else, subconscious they put up a wall between themselves and you and regardless of what happens, to them you'll always be a Master first and a friend second. The very fact that they all said they would "live for your sake" made me sure of that, because friends don't do that. Servants do."

Rias was at a loss for words, she didn't know what to say. After what felt like hours of silence, Rias gazed off into the starry night sky. "…You're right, I know that. I do love them like family, and I'm more than grateful for their loyalty. But I know first and foremost, they still don't see me as just Rias, nor does anyone else at school." She then had some sorrow in her voice. "I know it sounds crazy, that a Devil wants to live like a normal human, but that's how I feel, I wonder if anyone will treat me like that?"

"And what about me?" Shirou asked. "Have I ever done that?" His nonchalant words earned a surprised look from Rias. "Remember from the first moment I became a Devil, I've never once called you Master or Chief or any of that crap. I call you Rias, 'cause to me, that's who you are. And besides, I don't think wanting that is weird at all. On some level, everyone wants to be normal. A happy life treated as another average person rather than something otherworldly. I imagine it'd be a nice feeling…" He paused when he noticed Rias' eyes glued to him, expectancy emanating from Rias' expression. He quickly changed the subject. "So, the reason you don't want to marry Raiser is cause you want to be seen as you yourself?"

"Yes, that's correct." Rias said, confirming. "I want to be with someone who will love me as Rias without the fact that I'm a Gremory. That's the small dream I have. Unfortunately, Raiser only looks at me as Rias from the Gremory. And he loves me as Rias from the Gremory. That's why I hate it. But still, the pride of being a Gremory is very important. My feelings may be complicated, but I want to cherish this small dream I have."

"You're fighting this hard, just to be with someone you love?"

"That's right."

Shirou paused, processing all this new information he had learned. Then he had a small smile. "I see then, all this time I've been wondering what reason you had, but I never thought it would be that simple."

Rias closed her eyes and smiled as well. "I know it sounds silly, but I want the freedom to find my true love. I want someone who will love me for me, not for my position, and I'm willing to fight to make it happen if I have to."

"Well, if I'm being totally honest." Shirou then turned to face her. "I actually don't mind lending my support, for a reason like that."

"Y-You wouldn't?" Rias asked, a hint of hope sneaking into her voice. This was a real sign of positive regard that Shirou hardly ever shown towards Rias.

"That's right." Shirou confirmed. "I think I finally understand you now, you're not just some Princess, you're a teenage girl who just wants the basic things anyone should have a right to have. If that's the case, then this time I'll help out. After all, lending my strength for the sake of those who need my help is what I do."

Rias couldn't cover the smile that made it's way to her face. "So, you'll start training with the others starting tomorrow?"

"Haha, of course not." Shirou immediately answered. "Look, I already decided I would train way own way. And personally I still believe I can get the maximum results if I keep doing the training I've already started." Shirou lapped over the railing and landed in a crouch on the grassy ground. He looked back at Rias. "But don't worry, I'll let you guys keep Asia so you can teach her how to protect herself. Now, I gotta go.

Rias leaned on her arms on the railing as she looked down on Shirou. "Where are you going?"

Shirou turned and started walking away. "I'm gonna do some late-night training."

Shirou started walking before pausing and turning back to face Rias with a more sincere expression this time. "Oh and, just so you know, my feelings for you are completely unaffected by your statues, I only see you as a classmate, and on the job a working acquaintance. So don't ever worry about me using you… Okay, Danchou?"

After saying his piece, Shirou disappeared from sight into the brush.

 **Music Off**

He completely missed the expression of joy and satisfaction on Rias's face, all welling up in her simple smile and red cheeks.

"I don't believe it." Rias could not help but feel elated at having made a great step forward in having something close to both loyalty and friendship from her Pawn. "I never thought he would say a thing like that."

"Neither did I."

The new voice made Rias jump. She immediately scanned her surroundings, but there was nobody else for yards around. "To be honest, I never thought he would open up to you that much."

"Who…?"

"Up here." Rias looked up and saw a silhouette standing atop the gazebo, he then jumped down and joined her standing in front of her. The figure was Ren in his Youkai form.

Rias had her guard up when she saw him and narrowed her eyes. "Who are you? What's a Youkai doing here?"

Ren shrugged. "I'll answer your first question, my name is Ren Todo. Maybe you've heard of me."

Rias then stopped, and her eyes widened. "Wait, you're Ren, You're Shirou's closest friend?"

Ren nodded. "Correct, that'll make things easier."

"But then, why is a Youkai friend's with Shirou?"

"Don't act like I need a reason, he's my friend." Ren then sighed. "But if you need something, then just know that I'm half-human."

"Why didn't I know about you?" Rias asked.

"Because I didn't let you." Ren smirked. "As a Youkai, concealing my presence is my speciality. I knew about you Devils the whole time, but you never knew about me."

"Do _they_ know?" Rias did not specify, but they both knew well enough who Rias meant.

"They do, the day after Shirou joined your club." Ren answered.

Rias was surprised by that. "What? How?"

"It was the day after you had Kiba bring him to you. He told me he would explain, after telling me an abridged version I told him I know about Devils and everything else about you guys. And then he told me the truth to about what happened to him." Ren explained. "Mika knows because I didn't mind him telling her, but that's it. Even Asia doesn't know."

Rias raised a brow, confused. "You just told him the truth?"

"Of course I did," Ren nodded. "Because I know I could trust him not to tell anyone?"

"That's a little odd, most people wouldn't be so sure based on something like that." Rias retorted.

Ren narrowed his eyes. "You obviously don't know what it means to be Shirou's friend. Shirou is someone who doesn't trust most people, but the rare few he does trust, the ones he can call a friend. He trust's them unconditionally and we feel the same way. That's why when he says he won't tell anyone, I knew he wouldn't, and I was right."

Rias was a little surprised by Ren's words, but then again she had never met a friend of Shirou's besides Asia. And that was a special case, but this person was someone who had been his friend for more than a year. She couldn't imagine what they'd been through to have such a close bond, then remembered she still had a question.

"Then let me ask you something? What are you doing here?" Rias asked.

"You should know, I'm helping Shirou with his training." Ren answered.

Rias was surprised once again. "You are, how?"

"I'm his sparring partner. By day he trains with me, and by night he trains on his own."

Rias then realized something. "Wait…Then, this past month?"

Ren nodded. "That's right, I've been training with him this whole time, you guys couldn't feel it because we were in my barrier."

Rias was confused by all this. "I don't understand, why do all this, whose side are you on?"

Ren scoffed. "Don't you get it, I not on any side, I don't care about the Trinity Factions, or the Youkai Faction either. The only side I'm on is Shirou's."

"Then why did you hide from us?" Rias asked. "What reason was there, if you weren't on any side?"

"Because honestly, in the beginning, I didn't trust you." Ren narrowed his eyes. "And I couldn't forgive you for what you did to Shirou."

Rias was now confused. "What I did… What are you talking about?"

Ren glared at her. "You let him die."

What Ren said made Rias's heart skip a beat. There was a deafening silence in the air.

"W-What?"

"You think I didn't know?" Ren asked with narrowed eyes. "Back when those Fallen Angels were around and spent a month monitoring him, you were also watching him, you were waiting in the shadows, waiting until it was over and he was on the brink of death. After that happened, you would show up and turn him into your Servant and you'd do it in a way where he didn't even have a choice in the matter."

Rias bit her lip when hearing all this. It was true what Ren was saying, she had already sent Koneko to spy on Shirou so she would know when the Fallen Angels would make their move, and when he fought Raynare, Rias had her familiar watch from a close distance so she could show up when it was over. She wanted to wait until he died or was almost dead so she could turn him into a Devil, and so he couldn't refuse.

And now when she looks back on it, all she can feel is shame in herself. It was a cruel thing to do.

Rias then spoke with her head down. "Then why didn't you tell Shirou?"

"I did." Ren's answer shocked Rias. "And you know what he told me?"

* * *

 _Shirou and Ren were on the Kuoh Academy roof of the New School building, Ren had just informed Shirou of the truth._

 _"I see, so that's what happened." Shirou spoke._

 _"Yeah," Ren nodded. "I wanted you to know."_

 _"Thanks for telling me, Ren."_

 _Ren noticed Shirou's lack of reaction. "You don't seem upset."_

 _Shirou sighed. "Truthfully, I'm not surprised. Rias is from a noble family so she's probably been Sliver-Spooned her whole life, I'm guessing to her, she doesn't see what she did was bad, because it benefits her."_

 _"But, you can't just be okay with it."_

 _"I'm not." Shirou responded turning to him. "But the fact is, she promised me… She promised that if anything happened to me, she'd take care of Mika." Shirou informed Ren. "As long as that promise exists, I'll deal with this."_

 _"And, you trust her to keep that promise?" Ren asked._

 _"More like, I trust she won't break it as long as it's the only reason I stay." Shirou clarified._

 _Ren sighed. "I guess that's true."_

 _"Besides." Shirou continued. "I get the feeling, despite this, she's not a bad person. I can tell, after all, if she was then I doubt those other three would be so loyal to her. I'm not sure about what it is yet, but I think she's hiding who she really is, and deep down she wants something from all this."_

 _"Is that a hunch?" Ren asked._

 _"It is."_

 _Ren thought for a moment. "You're usually right when it comes to people. So I guess I'll believe it._

* * *

"That's how it went."

Rias listened to his telling of past events. Shocked again by all that she heard. She couldn't believe that all this time, Shirou had known what had happened and yet, he didn't harbour hatred towards her, she felt relief from that fact, and yet she thought that if he knew he would have nothing but resentment for her, she wouldn't blame him if he did. But was completely against everything she was expecting. Was her promise to protect Mika really that important to him. But more than that, she was surprised by what he said about her. About how he believed she wasn't a bad person despite what he was told. She didn't know why, but for some reason, that made her feel some warmth in her heart.

"Why did you tell me all this?" Ren asked Ren.

"Because, after everything that happened since then, and after what I heard, I knew he was right." Ren's features softened. "You aren't a bad person and there was a side of you that you were hiding. And since he was okay with it, I decided I would be too. I don't have a problem with you anymore and I willing to forget about what you did, since Shirou does too. That's why I didn't mind revealing myself to you."

"I see." Rias then had a sad smile on her face. "I'm grateful that he didn't hate me for what happened. I didn't think he would say that."

"It's only hard to understand for you guys cause you don't know a damn thing about him." Ren retorted.

Rias's eyes widened.

 _(It's only hard to understand for you guys cause you don't know a damn thing about him.)_

Rias recalled that Mika had said the exact same thing to her. This time however it frustrated her. Before Shirou left he said, he understood who she was, she felt upset over the fact that she still couldn't say the same.

"You're right I don't." Rias said in a heavy tone. "But I want to understand! Even just a little." She declared.

Ren could see that she was serious. "Then come with me, I'll show you."

Ren then walked into the forest and gestured Rias to follow him.

Rias was wary about this but chose to follow.

* * *

CRUNCH

"Ow!"

Rias winced as another broken twig stabbed into her foot. She leaned against a tree, holding up her foot to pull to splinter out.

"Isn't there a better route?"

Ren let out an irritated sigh. "I already told you "no"." Ren had been leading Rias through the forest for about an hour by this point. He was beginning to regret coming along with her. Especially after they kept stopping because she kept stepping in something. He turned to face her. "I told you to get shoes before we left."

"I didn't want to miss whatever it is you're showing me!"

"Alright, whatever," Ren hoped over a large tree root Rias could only surmount one leg at a time. "We're almost there."

"Where IS "there"?"

"You'll see in a moment." Ren sighed out. "Has anyone ever told you how impatient you are?"

"…Maybe."

The silence between them was interrupted by a sharp tremor in the ground.

"We've made it to where Shirou is." Ren said, with a serious expression.

Moments later they could see it.

Devils never had much trouble seeing in the darkness, but even they were able to see the contrast between darkness and light.

Meaning that Rias still found herself painfully blinded by the bright light shining through the foliage. This is of course followed by yet another tremor, one more powerful than the last one.

Rias stared warily, looking to Ren with an expectant look. The Wolf-Youkai vaguely gestured for Rias to observe for herself, and while Rias wasn't sure what to expect, she was too curious to not look.

She stepped forward, careful to make as little noise as possible as she stealthily made her way to the forest boundaries between her and her destination. She pushed aside some branches, the light beginning to die down.

"I'm almost there…"

The voice that spoke was neither hers nor Ren's. However, Rias knew the owner.

In the clearing Rias observed, standing alone right in the middle, was Shirou Tsukiharu.

He was sweaty, dirty, and exhausted.

"Shirou? What are you-Mmph!" A hand clapped over Rias's mouth before she was dragged back into the brush.

"Be quiet!" Ren hissed, holding Rias back. "We can't let him see you."

Rias got out of Ren's hold. "Why? Why can't I just ask him what he's doing out here?"

"Because, the reason he's this far out, is because he wants to keep what he's doing a secret." Ren explained. "No one, but Asia and I know about this."

"But… What is he doing?"

"What else would he do?"

Rather than answer, Rias went to take another look in order to understand what Ren meant.

Shirou just stood there, alone in the clear, his eyes closed.

 **Play OST Fairy Tail - Third Generation Dragon Slayer**

"Let's start again." He raised his left arm, shrouded in the armor of the Boosted Gear.

 **[BOOST!]**

"Again, more power." The Sliver-haired Pawn muttered to himself. "As much power as I can take…"

 **[BOOST!]**

"I… Don't get it." Rias said, turning back to Ren. "What's he doing out here?"

"Just watch." Ren advised. "You'll understand soon."

"Understand what?"

 **[BOOST!]**

Shirou clutched his chest, wincing. "Damnit… Just need to hold out a bit more."

Rias frowned from the side-lines. "He's …injured?" Shirou was dirty and bruised of course, but nothing that would have caused him that amount of pain. He had once charged head-first into a base filled with enemies and escaped with the ability to walk home, while barely breaking a sweat. It would be unbelievable for him to be this winded only after using his Sacred Gear so few times. "I don't—"

"Just _watch._ "

 **[BOOST!]**

"Again…" Shirou panted, clutching his side. "I need to… I need to increase my limit…"

"His limit"?" Rias turned to Ren. "Is he…?"

"Training, yes." Ren agreed. "By day he spars with me, to make himself strong and increase his stats, and by night he does this, to push the limits of his Sacred Gear." Ren then turned back to Shirou. "Keep watching, he's almost there."

 **[BOOST!]**

Shirou raised his hand to his mouth, coughing a bit, it seemed small but he was in great pain. Even Rias could see some spews of blood between his fingertips.

"Is he having trouble learning how to use his Sacred Gear?" Rias asked.

"No." Ren denied. "He just hasn't had enough time to rest."

 **[BOOST!]**

Despite his exhaustion, Shirou stood up straight, eyes beaming with determination as he wiped the blood from his mouth. "Just one more…Then I'll be ready."

 **[BOOST!]**

 **[EXPLOSION!]**

The sudden burst of power could be _physically_ felt for yards around, by every person plant and animal. Rias raised her arms in front of her to shield from the dirt and debris flying at her, but she couldn't hide her shock.

 _"This power I'm sensing from Shirou… This shouldn't be possible. It's higher than MINE?"_

Shirou fell to one knee, slamming his open palmed hand into the dirt. A magic circle appeared in the soil around his palm. Several other similar circles appeared around the clearing. The ground around those circles trembled violently and from those illuminated spots rose large masses of rock and dirt, both the size and shape of a human adult. These boulders, crafted by magic, appeared to resemble that of rock-made punching dummies, Shirou seemed satisfied by this.

Though Rias's magical talent far exceeds his, she was amazed that he could pull off a feat like this.

Shirou raised his right hand, extending his fingers towards the earthen targets he had just crafted. "I've already mastered control, let's see about power!" Electricity crackled between his fingers.

Something about Shirou's pose seemed awfully familiar to Rias…

 _ **RESOUND THUNDER!**_

There was an ear-splitting _BOOM_ followed by another blinding light that lit up the night.

From Shirou's fingertips a large bolt of thunder that was many times bigger and faster than Akeno's that struck the ground fiercely. It carved through the earth into a molten dagger, leaving traces of smoke and flames as it traced across the ground, weaving in-between several targets.

 _GOOOOOOOOOOOON!_

The earth exploded outwards from where the lightning struck. It was as if a giant hand had reached out and violently ripped a chunk of the earth away.

In the area where eight targets had once stood, there was now only a smoking crater several meters in diameter.

"Not done yet!" Shirou charged forward at the unmoving dummies, though with his blinding speed, he was there in less than a second. Shirou had three in front of his and brought up his fists and once again showing great speed he punched all three faster then the eye could see, shattering them as easily as if they were made on dry sand. All that remained was rubble.

However, not missing a beat, stopping one leg and using his left leg as a pivot. Shirou swung his other leg around with incredible speed and aimed for the dummy that was behind him. The dummy may as well have been made of butter with how easily Shirou's heel cleaved it in half.

Shirou flipped over his fallen targets as if dodging imaginary attacks, dodge-zigzagging across the ground at rapid speed before coming to a sudden stop, his left hand opened and outstretched the remaining five dummies.

"Let's end this!" A small sphere of magic welled up in the palm of his hand. However, it expanded and grew as time went on to the point where it was twice the size of his fist, and it looked sight it was a bomb ready to detonate.

 _ **DRAGON BLAST!**_

Rias instinctively covered her ears as another loud explosion ripped the night-time silence to shreds, causing nature itself to shake with an ungodly rage as a beam the size of two double-decker buses stacked on top of each other shot from Shirou's hand into the vast forest in front of him, sparing no plant life that dared to get in its way.

 **Music Off**

When the blast faded, Rias could only stare in shock.

From where he stood, there was a large cone, spanning for at least hundreds of meters in front of him, and off in the distance, where a large mountain once stood, now there was pure destruction, having taken to the brunt of Shirou's attack, the mountain was eviscerated, leaving nothing but a pillar of smoke and the shattered remains of the base.

Shirou stood, clutching his side and panting while looking satisfied. "That's good… Just a little more and I'll be ready."

One of the secret bystanders watched in satisfaction while the other watched in shock.

"But…How?" Rias wondered. "Shirou hasn't taken part in any of the training we developed. He shouldn't know how to use magic." Rias turned to Ren. "How did he learn how to use magic?"

"Don't be so shocked, he's known how to use magic for ages." Ren confessed. "He told me he first learned how to use the Thunder spell after you guy fought some Stray Devil." Rias's eyes widened after hearing that, this would mean that Shirou could use magic, only days after becoming a Devil. "His growth rate is incredible though, he used that same spell to kill those Fallen Angels. And since then, he's learned a few other elements too."

Rias didn't know what to say. "That… That can't be."

Shirou stumbled, his breathing becoming even deeper. "J-Just a little more… for the night…" He was shaking, but with effort, he managed to at least raise his left arm again. "Just a bit more—"

 **[BOOST!]**

"Aaauuuggghhh!" Shirou hugged his sides with his arms, his eyes becoming wide and bloodshot as vicious pain shot through his entire body. It felt as if every blood vessel in his body simultaneously ruptured with the pain of a thousand needles piercing his insides.

He collapsed to the ground, prone to his side.

"Shirou!" Rias sprinted to his side.

"Damnit." Ren hissed with worry as he followed her.

Rias rushed to her Pawns side, ignoring the jagged rocks that dug into her feet. She knelt by his side, unconcerned by the dirt that would stain her negligee. She lifted Shirou in her arms, cradling him so as to not exacerbate his injuries…

Or, whatever caused him pain.

Rias had debated whether or not she should open up his shirt and check for wounds…but she felt she had already violated his privacy enough when she had peeked the first two times, the first when she healed his injuries following his first encounter with Raynare during his revival, and the second being only hours earlier…

Rias tried examining his clothing more thoroughly as a substitute, but could not detect any abnormal tear or injury. He was in-pain, unconscious, but she could not figure out what had caused him to collapse in such a way.

"He overused his powers." Ren pointed out. "Don't forget, he already did his training for tonight. The fact that he was able to unleash that much power despite having used his Sacred Gear several times today is already amazing.

Rias looked at her Pawn's face, dirtied by the results of his own labors. "If he was already exhausted, why did he attempt training again?"

"Because the weight on his shoulder just got heavier." Ren said, crossing his arms. "He was already carrying the burden of his Sister's fate in this match and now another burden was placed upon him."

"Another burden? What are you—" Rias paused. "Oh…" She looked down at Shirou's face. "…This is my fault, isn't it?"

 **Play OST Nabari No Ou - Yureru Kokoro**

"I doubt he sees it that way." Ren answered, only adding to Rias's confusion. "He's always been this way. He craves power, and when he sees someone in need of his help, while he has the strength to help them, he can't ignore them. But because he craves power, he wants to always make sure he's stronger than any enemy, because he swore to himself a long time ago that he would never be defeated. That's why, when an important fight like this comes up, he'll train to gain even greater strength, even if it means pushing himself to the breaking point."

 _(You're not giving your body enough time to rest Shirou and at this rate, it's going to burn out.)_

Mika's voice resounded in Rias's head, but she tried to push them out for the time being. "He does this often?"

"Not often, but still too often." Ren answered serious, "For the time he's been training here, he was able to minimize the damage. He always had someone at night to stop him from going too far."

"Someone stopped him?" Rias wondered. "Well, why aren't they out here tonigh-Oh God, it was Asia, wasn't it?"

"Yeah." Ren looked down at his best friend. And Rias had told Shirou to stop keeping Asia to himself during their precious training time. "…Shirou knew that this training wasn't something he should take lightly, that's why he felt having a healer with him, was the best choice."

"…I get more and more confused the more I learn about Shirou." Rias sighed out. "I don't get what you're saying."

"Then let me spell it out for you." Ren responded. "Shirou is a person who trusts others very little. The number of people he actually does trust is a number small enough to count with just the fingers in one hand. He can get along with others fine, but actually being open with them is where he draws the line. And in truth, that's why he wanted to train alone, and more than that he never wants to be someone who has to rely on others, even if they rely on him he refuses for it to be the other way around, because to him that's a weakness, and he can't accept that."

Rias looked from Ren to Shirou. She rested his head against her chest, the weight of the life in her arms suddenly feeling a great deal heavier. The rugged, almost beast-like face that she could never understand became soft and vulnerable, perhaps even a little sad.

"It sounds really lonely…"

"That's the price you pay in exchange for power." Ren pointed out. "Shirou is the one that stands at the top of the pecking order, but everyone around him was always hiding their true intention, wanting to knock him down. Enemy delinquents, all those shallow people back at school, especially the girls who fawn over him because he's appealing to them, because his reputation both frightens and excites them, that's why he got so good at reading other peoples intentions with his instincts, so he wouldn't trust the wrong person. With so many liars and people just wanting to use him, you could imagine he wouldn't feel like giving out trust so easily."

 _(On some level, everyone wants to be normal. A happy life treated as another average person rather than something otherworldly. I imagine it'd be a nice feeling…)_

 _(So don't ever worry about me using you…Okay Danchou?)_

"I know that…" Rias bit her lower lip. "I saw it and I didn't even realize it."

The scars on his body… Even if they weren't visible, the image had been imprinted in her psyche.

Back when she first saw Shirou's bandages, she was curious as to what could have been under them, and why he was so determined to hide it.

But now hearing all this, and seeing those scars…

She had not a single clue. The sight she observed at the outdoor bath on his body was terrifying and implied a lot of gruesome things. She could not even begin to contemplate what had caused those scars, whether it was Shirou or, something else…

The arrogant, distant Shirou had certainly not been a lie, but Rias also knew the vulnerable, innocent boy in her arms was no illusion either. Neither were the burdens he bore on his shoulders…

"Foolish, no one expected him to go this far."

"Maybe." Ren responded. "But, I was surprised by how he acted when talking to you, I guess your words touched him, that's why he didn't mind if you relied upon him for this match."

"But he shouldn't be carrying all this on his own," Rias argued. "I want him to rely on me!"

Ren just stared. "And why would he do that, when you yourself aren't reliable?"

Rias was surprised by that. "What? Of course, I am."

"Then tell me, why don't you train?" Ren asked Rias paused. "High-Class Devils like you and Raiser are always like this. You always think "I'm from this family or whatever, and I have great power, why train when I'm already strong enough to beat anybody?" Isn't that right? He's here training like hell for this fight and you haven't trained at all. Why would he rely on someone like that?"

Rias couldn't retort. She knew deep down he was right. She had Pride in her power that came from being a member of the House of Gremory, but that Pride had made her arrogant. At some point, she had just believed as a Gremory who was born talented at the use of magic she felt there was never a need to train because she never needed much effort to beat others. But in truth, that was only because she had never been in a real fight, and while the most important battle of her life was coming up and her entire Peerage, especially her Pawn was training their hardest to be ready. She the King hadn't lifted a finger. That thought filled her with shame.

Rias looked at Ren, then to Shirou's sleeping face. It was at that moment she made a decision.

"Well, that's about to change right now."

 **Music Off**

* * *

Shirou woke up with a start, feeling as though all of his ribs were about to simultaneously split apart the moment he sat up.

"Augh! Damnit!" Shirou clutched his sides, taking notice to his change of clothes. He had changed from his training clothes to his casual attire and he didn't have a clue as to how.

He was positive he was in the same room he had been spending the nights in since arriving at this mountain training camp, but he had no recollection about returning the previous night. Even just thinking about it gave him a headache…

He hunched over, clutching his heart, every beat felt like a knife stabbing his heart from the inside.

"I guess…I guess I overdid it…" He figured. "…But that doesn't explain how I got back."

There was a clatter of metal, as something hit the ground, drawing Shirou's attention.

Asia stood there, clothed in her tracksuit, her mouth open in shock. "You're awake!"

"So are you." Shirou pointed out.

Asia immediately rushed over to Shirou, pushing him back down into his bed. "You shouldn't be up! you shouldn't even be awake!" Shirou was about to object, but then Asia turned to face him, her expression that of an adorable pout, but still very clearly upset. "You went and did something reckless again, didn't you?"

"It wasn't reckless." Shirou said dismissively. "I just didn't feel like playing it safe."

Asia placed her hands on her hips, clearly intent on scolding her friend. "You had two ruptured organs when I brought you back last night."

Shirou scratched his head. "You brought me back last night?" He tried to imagine the small and pathetically weak blond carrying him back all the way from the middle of the forest to this room…

He just didn't see it happening.

"Are you sure someone else wasn't out there?"

"Don't change the subject." Asia said quickly, again pushing Shirou back into his bed. "You are going to spend the rest of the day in bed, Shirou-san. I don't want to hear any "ifs" "and" or "buts" about it. You had me worried sick!"

"My bad." Shirou rubbed the back of his neck. "…Are you sure it was just you? I could've sworn I heard some voices before I—"

"N-Nope! Just me!" Asia interrupted panicking, she was sweating bullets. "I brought you home the previous night after you collapsed from training. That's the absolute truth." She pulled the covers over Shirou. "Now I don't want to hear any argument. You are going to spend the rest of the day in bed and that's final! From hereon, I going to be with you at all times until we're done training!"

"But what about Rias? Didn't she give you crap about training with them or something?"

"I'm worried about _you_ right now, just rest."

Shirou wasn't in the mood for arguing in the first place. Aside from his confusion regarding the events from the previous night, his insides just _really_ hurt. He was stubborn but even he knew that pushing himself after a night like that would do more harm than good.

Not to mention he'd never hear the end of it from Mika OR Asia.

 _"But still…"_ Shirou peered out the open door, seeing nothing but an empty hallway. _"Why do I feel like… I wasn't alone last night?"_

Asia fluffed his pillows, laying his head back softly. "Now just lay here and relax, I'll go get you some breakfast." On that note, Asia left.

And so, Shirou was left alone to his thoughts.

And the oddest sense of security, for the first time in years…

* * *

"Are you sure this is okay?" Asia asked, certain she was a decent distance away from ear-shot of Shirou.

The Crimson haired girl leaning against the wall nodded. "It's better this way, he doesn't need to know I was there."

"Yes, but I feel guilty." Asia said.

"For lying to him?"

"Well yes," Asia confirmed, uneasy. "But also for taking the credit for your kindness."

Rias stood on her feet, turning to leave. "As long as he's recovered, and will be well enough to fight in the Rating Game, I'm satisfied."

"Aren't you going to check on him?" Asia asked.

Rias shook her head. "No, I have my own training to attend to." A soft smile found it's way on her face, surprising Asia.

She was not the type to normally train herself. But seeing Shirou in such a state motivated her to increase her own amount of effort in this venture.

"I need to become stronger if I ever want my adorable Pawn to be able to rely on me. It's only fair after all."

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. And so, first of all, I decide to make Shirou a master Chef because all the other versions of Shirou were and I decided I like that trait so I put it in here. And personally, it reminded me of Food Wars.**

 **As for the bathing scene, you've finally seen what's under Shirou's bandages. And he has scars everywhere around his body, yes he was tortured at some point and that's why he has scars. Mika was too but not as much as her brother, the details will be explained at a later time.**

 **And as you now know, Shirou knows Rias let him die. I know why she did it and I decided that Ren would be the one to inform him, though since Shirou didn't care for his humanity as long as he could protect what he cared about and as long as he had power since Rias showed she wasn't a bad person he let it slide. And after Ren was convinced of that, he decided to let her in on his secret too.**

 **But, even though Shirou understands Rias now and sees her plight, he still doesn't put his trust in her, he still sees her as just an acquaintance. And Rias now sees him as someone she cherishes and wants to protect, so that's how it'll be for a while.**

 **And now finally, this training Arc is over, the next chapter will be the start over the Rating Games.**

 **And in case you didn't know, Danchou is the most informal way of saying, Boss**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed if you want more then leave a review if you liked this story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	12. Rating Game And Results Of Training

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. On this chapter, the Rating Game will finally begin. And if you thought the last chapter was long, then get ready for this one.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Rating Game And Results Of Training**

* * *

Tick-Tock!

Tick-Tock!

Tick-Tock!

The clock ticked away endlessly, counting second after second.

Excitement, anxiety, impatience, joy, hatred, ecstasy.

Shirou went through these emotions in an endless cycle, experiencing one after another in a tempest of thoughts.

Shirou was sitting on the bed in his room, waiting for the time of the Rating Game to begin, he was once again wearing his combat suit.

The way they trained their hardest of the course of time they spent on the mountain. On the last night of their trip, Ren had left saying he was ready. He said he knew that Shirou had trained enough to be able to defeat Raiser and to call him, and tell him the results after the fight.

Disregarding that, he had done as he promised Rias and sent Asia back early to receive proper education, but out of the blue, Rias demanded he sits and learns with her. She didn't force him to partake in the mundane magic training (Unbeknownst to her, as he thought, he already had the basics down and could now use magic skilfully). She also had developed a habit of keeping him in whenever Asia was unavailable to join him in his private training. It was bizarre the lengths that she went to keep him from going alone.

He tried to pay no mind to it. After all, Shirou had come further than he even thought he would be able to within a ten-day period. He hadn't learned anything special, but he could feel his power was on a completely different level than before, in both magic and power, as well as understanding a little bit more about his Sacred Gear as well as its limits.

 **[Are you feeling confident, Partner?]**

Shirou looked down at the back on his left hand a saw a circle-shaped, emerald coloured glow, he knew this meant that the spirit sealed within his Boosted Gear was talking to him. Shirou wasn't expecting The Red Dragon, Ddraig to speak to him now, but he honestly didn't mind.

"Of course I am," Shirou smirked. "Because I know, I can beat this guy."

 **[While I agree that your power has grown more than I thought, in such a short amount of time, you shouldn't underestimate your opponent]**

Shirou raised a brow. "Oh, you're telling me you're also worried about Raiser?"

Ddraig scoffed. **[Worried no, informed yes, I've faced Phoenix's before and the flames of the immortal bird can even wound a Dragon, as strong as you've become your life could still be in danger if you let your guard down]**

"Enough with the hype already," Shirou responded. "I get it, everyone's concerned about this fight. But regardless, he's also going to be in danger."

 **[And why is that?]**

"Because he's up against me. I'm pretty sure he remembers I blasted him into the wall the last time we saw each other, and that was before training." Shirou pointed out. "I trained almost to the grave for this fight, and I'm not letting it end in anything but victory."

 **[I see that you've resolved yourself, however, there is still time before the battle, if you would like you could make the deal]**

Ddraig offered. But Shirou shook his head.

"I told you before, while it might be tempting the answer's no."

At some point during training Ddraig spoke with Shirou and told him of an option he could use to get stronger.

If he desired, Shirou could trade away a part of his body, in this case, his left arm and give it to Ddraig in exchange for turning it into a Dragon's arm. The trade will also give him a temporary boost of power which he could call upon whenever he chose.

However, Shirou rejected the offer. In his eyes as a fighter and as a man, there was nothing more shameful then gaining power by relying on having to give up on or sacrificing something. He would rather gain power the hard and long why with everything he had, instead of taking the easy and short way by giving things up.

 **[You should know it is not a bad trade, if you make the deal you would have enough power to defeat a Satan-Class opponent and more than enough to defeat this current foe]**

Shirou looked at his arm, speaking to the being inside. "Listen Ddraig, you told me once that your power was mine to control and in exchange, I'd need to become stronger than my current-self, I guarantee you, this Shirou-sama will get my hands on all that power, but I'll do it my way."

Ddraig didn't say anything for a moment, and then he seemed to be at ease.

 **[Very well then, I will not bring this up again]**

Shirou then smirked. "Hey don't worry about it, Partner. I'm still the Red Dragon Emperor, so I've got all the power I need."

 **[It's true, you are an abnormal being who possesses a Dragon within you. but remember to take heed, even if you overcome this foe, there will always be others waiting in line to take his place. And there is no telling when The "White one" will make his Appearance]**

That last statement piqued Shirou's curiosity. "The "White one"?"

 **[Do not be concerned for now. However, I will explain it to you at a later time, I wish you luck, Partner]**

And with that, the glow on his hand went out, signalling that Ddraig ended their conversation.

"Huh, "White one"?" Shirou wondered. "I'm guessing that's not his actual title, 'cause it sounds kind of racist."

Though seriously he considered what Ddraig by "making his appearance", The way he was talking, Ddraig must think he's stronger then Raiser, or maybe even any other opponent he'll ever face. That notion honestly, made him a little excited for it.

No matter how strong he had been as a human, there was always someone stronger than him. Shirou knew that, there was always another obstacle to overcome and that in itself held a sort of thrill for him. It wasn't that the existence of stronger foes bothered him, not at all.

It was that at some point he felt he hit a slump, his fights were no longer a struggle, it got to the point where he had to weaken himself by wearing weights just so that they would count as a fight.

The thing that Shirou loved was fighting the strong, like a battle-maniac, there was nothing he enjoyed more than fighting and fighting those who had strength equal to him, or greater than him, nothing made his Soul cry out in ecstasy more.

That's why he loved the fact that the supernatural world was full of so many strong opponents to fight.

Of course, Mika wouldn't like him having these thoughts… Neither would Asia, undoubtedly. However, no matter how badly he tried to distract himself, his mind continuously wandered back to what he was trying to avoid. It was like an endless.

Tick-Tock!

Tick-Tock!

Tick-Tock!

Shirou still stares at the clock.

The clock still ticked away endlessly, counting every second.

One hour to go before the game.

It was maddening, his own mind, his own thoughts. It was likely just anxiety, the uncertainty before a big event. It would probably fade once the fighting started, but that was still a long ways off.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Thankfully, a distraction came in the form of a knock on the door.

Shirou set the clock back on the nightstand beside his bed. "Come in."

The door opened, revealing Asia dressed in her nun attire, but without the veil on her head and without the Rosario for the obvious reason that a Devil is unable to wear a cross without it sizzling them like acid, and Mika dressed in a strange outfit.

"What the. Mika?" Shirou gasped. "What the hell are you wearing?"

"You like it?" Mika struck a pose.

She wears an outfit very reminiscent of Japanese Gothic Lolita fashion, consisting of a long black and red dress. Her dress contains many-layered ruffles on the skirt and sleeves; there is also space for her to place her red marbles in. Over her shoulders, Mika wears a matching, also multiple layered, ruffled shawl, with a similar piece being worn on her waist over the bottom portion of her dress. Mika wears long white stockings underneath and red Mary Jane's. She completes her outfit with multiple ribbons for accessories, with one being tied over her hair and a miniature top hat on the left side of her head.

"What even is "it"?"

"I figured since you have an outfit made for fighting, I should too." Mika answered. "So I chose this, It's the same attire as my favourite character from an anime I finished awhile back, I thought about dying my hair Sliver to complete the look, but then I decided that would just make mine a copycat and that's beneath me."

"Mika, that's basically just cosplay." Shirou pointed out.

"Which is why it's perfect for me."

"I think she looks cute." Asia chimed in.

Mika smiled, patting the former nun on the head. "Thank you Asia." She took a seat on the right of Shirou. "We thought you'd be feeling lonely before the game started, So Asia and I decided to come and keep you company."

Shirou turned to face her. "…Are you sure that's the only reason?"

"Well, I do admit." Mika sighed. "I also wanted to show off my outfit to you."

Shirou nodded. "Yep, that sounds more like you." Mika then took notice to Asia, the blonde looking nervous and out-of-place. She give her a smile before patting the empty space and Shirou's left on the bed.

Asia hesitated for several moments, putting her foot forward before taking it back. Eventually, her courage won over her hesitation and she took her seat, placing her hands on her lap.

It was now that she sat that Shirou finally realized that he and Mika weren't the only ones who made a wardrobe change.

"You're wearing your nun's robes," Shirou noted. It was hard to mistake the clothes Asia had been wearing when they first met. (Barring the veil and Rosario, of course).

Asia nodded, her smile becoming more and more nervous. "Chief said I could wear what I felt most comfortable in…" She turned away. "W-What do you think?"

"If you're asking about what I think of the outfit, then." Shirou decided to be blunt with his answer. "Personally, it brings back memories, for better or worse."

He presumed he had given the correct response considering the joyful smile on Asia's face.

"I'm glad! I know it might seem a little silly, but it reminds me of my faith." Asia said.

Shirou shrugged. "You don't need a reason to want to wear it, but I'll respect you for still wanting to believe even now. Some people just need something to hold on to." He paused. "You know, I'm still wondering why you two are here, shouldn't you be getting ready for the game?"

"Big Bro, we're about as ready as we're going to get." Mika answered. "It's not a physical preparation, but a mental one." She crossed her legs before tipping to the side, resting her head on Shirou's shoulder. "Just pre-game jitters."

"We're sorry." Asia apologized. "It's just that, well… When we're around you, we feel more confident, Shirou-san." Although a lot more humble and awkward than Mika, the former nun too, rested her head on Shirou's shoulder. "I just had a lot of trouble getting my hands to stop shaking."

"Hmm." Shirou agreed. "I can understand why, after all this is the first real fight the two of you have ever been in, isn't it? Don't worry, it's fine to be nervous when it's your first time going to a battlefield."

"Were you nervous on your first fight?" Mika question.

"…No, but that's because I'm a special case."

"Mika-san, you say you're nervous, but right now you seem carefree." Asia said, sweating. "And Shirou-san, isn't worried at all, I wish I had your confidence."

"It's not confidence, Asia." Mika corrected. "It's belief."

Asia stared blankly. "What?"

"Even if you can't will away your fear, you can instead think of something that gives you hope." Shirou explained. "You just have to avoid thinking about it."

"And I gain hope from Big Bro." Mika explained. "When I with him, I feel like we can beat anybody."

"Even though there's so much at stake?"

" _Especially_ when there's so much at stake," Shirou said. "You've lost the moment you start doubting yourself."

"Then I guess I won't be useful in this battle," Asia responded, melancholy. "I wish I had as much confidence as you, Shirou-san. I'm afraid that…that I'm just going to drag everyone else down again."

"You won't drag us down, Asia." Mika assured. "If you fall behind, we'll just pick you up and carry you along."

"But I don't want to be a burden on anyone." Asia argued. "I just…I don't have any real talents like everyone else. I don't have any of Chief's charisma or Shirou-san's bravery. I can't create strategies like Mika-san or fight of the others. All I can do is heal people _after_ they have been seriously hurt. I'm just…"me"."

"And what's wrong with that? What's wrong with being you? Asia, you're great." Shirou said, earning a deep blush from Asia. "You may not think that healing is much, but to me, that's something that makes you more important then even a Queen, we need a healer, that's a must on a battlefield. And you yourself are a great person to have, just like Mika, and if anyone says otherwise, then they're idiots."

"We love you too, Big Bro."

"Listen." Shirou wrapped his arms around both girl's shoulders, holding them comfortingly against his chest. It was hard to find a word to describe the shade of red that coloured both of their faces. "Everything's going to work out. Things look rough now, but I give you my word: We're gonna win this. We're stronger than anything that flaming man-whore can throw at us. We're going into this together and we're coming out of it together. And we always will, because we're a family."

""We're" a family?" Asia wondered.

"Yes we're a family." Shirou confirmed. "And that means you too, I don't think there's anyone else I'd rather have at my side right now."

For a moment, Asia beamed at Shirou silently, a mix of joy, embarrassment, and relief pumping through her heart.

"You promise, Shirou?" Mika asked. "You guarantee, when we come back to this house, it'll be all of us?"

"Mika, have I ever lied to you when I say, "I give you my word"?"

Content, Mika nuzzled her face more affectionately against Shirou's chest.

"We… We'll do our best to protect you too, Shirou-san." Asia said, letting herself sink into her friends embrace, her fast-beating heart finding ease in the warmth that radiated from the youth.

And then the three of them stood up, ready and prepared to head to the Rating Game.

Shirou had determination in his eyes.

"Okay, let's get this show on the road."

* * *

"Hey, we're here."

Shirou was escorted from both sides by Asia and Mika, the former nun looking uneasy both the silence that filled the room.

Koneko and Akeno were just sitting on one of the couches in silence waiting for the game to begin, almost like they were in a trance. Kiba was no different as he was standing by the wall holding his sheathed European Medieval Sword, looking ready to fight. And Rias was sitting at her desk, her eyes closed as if she was mentally preparing herself.

Shirou looked around at the solemn faces that filled the room. Every single one of them looking anxious for the coming fight.

"Huh, feels like we came at a bad time." Shirou noted. "Seriously guys, are you that nervous?"

Shirou frowned, walking over to the couch opposite to Koneko and Akeno, joined by his two female escorts.

"It's alright, Shirou." Rias spoke up. "We're just mentally preparing ourselves after all this is our first fight."

Shirou shrugged. "I guess that's fair."

Rias then opened her eyes and looked at the three who had just arrived. However, she blinked when she saw them, noticed that they we're all wearing something different.

"Are those what you're going to wear for the game?" Rias asked.

"Well yeah, it's my combat outfit." Shirou responded. "I always wear this before a serious fight," He then gestured to Asia. "As for her, well you said wear whatever's comfortable."

"And this is new for me." Mika chimed in. "But I wanted something that looks good too."

"I see." Rias then smiles. "Well, if it's what you want, and it does suit you all."

"Thank you, Rias." Mika was glad at getting praise for her outfit a second time.

"Besides that, is that all you guys are going to wear?" Shirou questioned.

Rias blinked. "Yes, what's wrong with it?"

""What's wrong with it"?" it's just your student uniforms."

Shirou was referring to the fact that, that Rias and all the other members besides himself, Mika and Asia were simply wearing their student uniforms.

"Oh, well the truth is, we have casual clothes and formal attire, but we don't have anything that's made for combat." Akeno answered. "But since we also fight Stray Devils wearing these, we decided to make our uniforms also our fighting uniforms.

"Seriously," Shirou then groaned. "Man, it just feels like we overdressed for this."

"Not really." Mika argued. "In cosplay there are lot's of people who dress as characters from school anime."

Shirou pinched the bridge of his nose. "I told you, my outfit is _not_ cosplay!"

The rest of the club watched this exchange between the two siblings, with a bit of amusement. They also felt a bit of their anxiety fade from the light-heartedness.

Shirou noticed this and looked satisfied. "There, that's the right attitude to have."

"You were trying to calm us down?" Rias asked.

"You've lost the moment you start doubting yourself." Asia quoted, with a smile.

"By Shirou." Shirou finished.

The others were a bit surprised that Shirou would try to boost up their morale, but decided not to question it. It was something they need, after all.

"Shirou-kun." Kiba spoke up, walking over to Shirou. "We appreciate what you're trying to do, and understand what you're saying." Then Kiba looked down and gripped his Sword. "But still…For us, we can't help but feel on edge, considering what's at stake.

"You scared?" Shirou asked.

Kiba still looked down and nodded. "…A little."

Koneko, Akeno, Asia, and Rias, were all a little saddened knowing that the same could also apply to them right now.

Shirou then decided to try something, he then vanished in a burst of speed, and before Kiba could react, Shirou was right behind him, pointing his index finger at the side of Kiba's head as if it was a gun. Kiba was shocked, his eyes widened at Shirou's speed, considering he was a Knight, speed was his speciality and yet he couldn't follow Shirou's movements at all.

The others (barring Mika) Were just as surprised, unable to understand what Shirou was doing.

Rias got up from her seat. "Shirou?! what are you—"

"Hold up, Rias," Mika held up her and interrupted her. "Just watch."

Rias didn't know what Mika apparently knew Shirou was up to, but she decided to see, hoping things would be alright.

"Tell me something?" Shirou asked, in a quiet tone, still in the same position. "Could you see me, at all?"

Kiba clenched his teeth. "No, you completely caught me off-guard."

"And do you know why that is?" Shirou questioned, rhetorically. "It's because your heads not in the game, when your nervous or on edge like that it's easier for you enemies to get the drop on you, normally you coulda seen that coming, but right now your hands won't stop shaking." Shirou pointed out.

Kiba was surprised by his words but then looked at his hands, he then saw that just like Shirou had claimed, both his hands and his Sword were indeed trembling.

"Kiba, what is the most important thing you should be doing in this match?"

"That's obvious," Kiba responded. "Protecting the Chief."

"Then stop being a pussy. If that's what you need to do then don't use "this is my first fight" as an excuse, instead shake off that anxiety and get your head back in the game." Shirou advised him. "How are we going to win, when the Knight is the first one to lose his nerve?"

Rias now understood what Shirou was trying to do, this was an attempt to motivate Kiba, though to her his method seemed a bit rough. Rias just hoped it worked the way he wanted it to.

Kiba heard all his words and understood what Shirou was trying to say. He could feel it, it was like a fire had lit inside of him, and he was inwardly telling himself, yelling at himself. "I am a Knight, I am a Sword of Rias Gremory." Those words gave him strength. And with that, he immediately stopped shaking, gripped his Sword even harder and quick like a flash he drew his blade from its sheath and slashed at Shirou who was behind him.

 _SLASH!_

Fortunately for Shirou, Kiba's blade only slashed empty space, as he vanished with his speed again and stood back by the couch that his was standing by before.

Shirou smirked. "Heh, that's more like it."

Kiba then smiled back at him, while sheathing his Sword. "Shirou-kun, you were trying to motivate me to have more courage, weren't you?" He asked, even though he was sure he already knew the answer. "Thank you."

"Hmph…" Shirou scoffed. "I was just telling you to snap out of it." Shirou then grinned. "Besides, we got nothing to worry about in this game, not while Shirou-sama is their opponent."

His words were confident and full of arrogance. But most of them could tell that was his way of saying "You're welcome". And in truth, Shirou's words inadvertently motivated the others too, and now they could feel some of their nerves calm down about and their morale was a bit higher.

"The truth is, I'm still not 100% on this, considering what's at stake." Kiba admitted. "But, right now I feel like I'm much more ready to fight." He said, determined.

Shirou nodded. "That's good, It'd be a real pain if you weren't prepared while we're fighting together."

The members of the Occult Research Club were all a little surprised when they heard that last part.

"…Fighting together?"

"Oh that's right, I was supposed to tell you all this." Rias the walked up to Shirou. "We agreed to work together for this match, both Shirou and myself." Rias said. Asia beamed with joy while Mika smirked, her head leaning on her arm.

Koneko, Akeno, and Kiba, on the other hand, were surprised by this new development.

Shirou shrugged. "I don't get why you had to ask in the first place, that was my plan from the start."

[What?]

Shirou now just stared at them, his eyes narrowed. " _What?_ Why's that so surprising to you guys?"

Kiba glanced at him, looking sheepish. "Well, normally you prefer to do things on your own."

"…And you didn't even want to train with us." Koneko added.

"So we assumed you would want to fight separately from us when the game started." Akeno finished.

Shirou sighed. "Then you guys obviously had the wrong idea. This is a fight none of us can afford to lose." Shirou reminded them. "So, if our best bet is together then I'm fine with it, I just trained alone because as I said, that would give me the best possible results."

"Oh, well, I'm glad everything worked out then." Akeno said now having her usual smile. "Still I'm surprised Chief, I expected a bit more of a struggle before gaining cooperation."

"I did too at first." Rias agreed.

"I'm the one who was surprised, honestly." Shirou argued. "I didn't think that when we talked, you'd act that open about it. You were a lot more, "I'm asking you", rather than the usual "I order you". What was up with that?"

Rias took a deep breath, allowing Shirou's comment to slide. "Well, you could say, I had a change in perspective."

"Perspective?"

"I mean "heart"." Rias corrected herself.

"Does this have anything to do with the baths, Che-Hmmph!" Rias went on Akeno like butter on toast, clamping her hand over the Thunder Priestess's mouth.

"I told you never to mention that." Rias whispered at her.

Shirou raised a brow at that exchange. _"Huh, wonder what they're talking about."_ He thought, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Well, I say this, your training must have definitely work." Kiba said, impressed. "Your reflexes were impeccable."

"Nah, those are normal." Shirou said. He tapped his arm, pumping his fist upwards. "My training was all about powering up all my battle stats. Now everything is better than before."

"Wait…so…you dodged my Sword with your normal flexes."

"Obviously, I didn't have time to train on things that would take too long to get results, I had to prioritize what was important. That's why I'm fighting without my weights." Shirou explained, pulling out a large, metallic circle in his hand. He swung it around on his finger before flinging it at Kiba, the Knight caught it in his hands and almost immediately stumbled as the weight gravitated towards the floor. "If we're doing this, we're doing this right, I'm going all-out right from the start."

"Just be sure to pace yourself, Shirou." Rias advised. "We can't have you running out of stamina before we've faced Raiser."

"Oh relax." Shirou waved off her worry. "I got stamina for days, besides I already know how many Boosts I can use per fight, I personally I doubt I'll need them on anyone but Raiser."

"You shouldn't underestimate them."

"I'm not, trust me." Shirou then made a fist. "I trained not just my Gear, but everything else too. Now there's nothing that Flaming Peacock and his collection of costume girls can throw at me, that I can't handle."

Rias chose not to argue further. "Well, let's hope so."

"Whatever the case, we've finally come to a consensus." Mika pointed out, sitting upright in her seat. "Even if we're outnumbered almost 2 to 1, we have an advantage in unity."

"Does that mean you've drawn up our battle strategy?" Rias asked.

"As much as I could. Without knowing the battlefield, I could only base my strategies around the personalities and fighting styles of Raiser and his servants. As long as it's a fair battleground, I should have no problem adapting the strategy to the new territory.

Rias nodded. "Good, I look forward to hearing it."

It was then that a magic circle appeared on the floor, radiating the Crimson-like colour of the Gremory families magic.

Grayfia Lucifuge stepped out from it, bowing respectfully in greeting towards Rias.

"The game will be beginning shortly." She said. "I trust you've made all your preparations, Milady?"

Rias looked to each of her servants, each and every one of them holding the same determination in their eyes as her. She smiled, turning to Grayfia.

"Yes, we're ready whenever you are."

"In a few moments, we'll use a magic-circle to transport you and your team to the battlefield." Grayfia explained. "This is an alternate space created specifically for this Rating Game, so you are free to exchange blows without restrain and without fear of collateral damage." She turned to Shirou and more clearly stated. "This means you are permitted to unleash havoc and mayhem at your leisure."

[Perfect, that means I don't have to hold back.]

Shirou and Mika both paused, exchanging looks.

[Huh, that was weird.]

"Ignoring that altogether." Rias decided, feeling chills go down her spine.

Grayfia pursed her lips, only now taking Mika's presence into account. "Lady Rias, who is this young girl?"

This is Shirou's younger Sister, Mika Tsukiharu, my Rook." Rias answered. "I can understand why you don't recognize her, the last time she was here, she was a lot less well dressed."

"Hey, I resent that!" Mika said, offended.

"I see, I do recall her face now that I think about it." For a second, Grayfia eyed Mika curiously, the Otaku staring blankly right back at her. After a brief stare-down, Grayfia politely bowed to her. "A pleasure to meet you. My name is Grayfia Lucifuge, a servant of the House of Gremory."

"I didn't get to bring this up last time but, I understand you're the one who called my Brother a "Low-born"?" Mika asked, a neutral expression on her face.

Grayfia didn't flinch at the question. "In regards to his status, he was—" She was mildly surprised by the magic circle that appeared above her head.

Even less pleased when it dumped at least a gallon of water right on top of her head.

She was soaked instantly, her Silver her becoming a damp, Silvery-grey mop on her head, obscuring the upper half of her displeased face. Her sopping wet dress clung to her curvaceous body, and what had comprised the calm, dignified image they had all observed before was now gone.

Every jaw in the room (Besides Mika, Shirou, and Grayfia's) had dropped, a high-pitched yet soft squeal of horror emitting from everyone's throats. Shirou, on the other hand, just looked like he saw this coming.

Mika smiled pleasantly in spite of the rude thing she had done to the woman infinitely stronger than her. "Okay, now we're even~ Don't do it again, okay~?"

Grayfia was NOT amused.

"Mikaaaaa!" Rias hissed into the younger girl's ear. "Do you not know who she is?!"

"I know you're going to tell me regardless of how I answer." Mika sighed out.

"Grayfia could squash you like a grape! She can get instantly violent if you push her buttons!"

"Hey." Mika said. "She called my Brother a "Low-born". I heard what happened!"

"How?!" Rias gasped. Only three people knew what had happened in Shirou's room almost two weeks ago. There was her, Shirou, and—

"Asia was told by Big Bro and she told me." Mika explained.

"Shirou!"

Shirou raised a brow. "I wasn't aware it was supposed to be a secret. And why aren't you getting mad at Asia!? She's the one that blabbed to Mika!" Shirou turned to Asia, opening his mouth and closing it just as quickly when he saw the nun staring innocently at him. "…Okay yeah, I see why. But still, I didn't know it was a secret."

"What was?" Kiba asked, trying to avoid focusing his fear on the Silver-haired maid Mika had pissed off.

"Oh, that Rias tried to—"

"Ahem." It was Grayfia who interrupted the conversation. She pulled the whole length of her hair back, squeezing a torrent of water from her Silvery locks. She turned to Mika and, for a brief moment, Rias feared that Shirou's sister was about to be turned into a bloody pile of paste and bone and that Shirou's subsequent and inevitable revenge would result in him sharing her fate. "Bad."

Grayfia Lucifuge, the Queen of Rias Gremory's older brother and a servant of the Gremory family, softly scolded Mika while pinching her cheeks.

"Owie!" Mika whined as the Silvery maid pulled on her cheeks, not enough to actually injure her but enough to feel like her face was being pinched off. "Shtop iiiit!"

"You're a growing girl," Grayfia said with the same neutral tone. "Tom-foolery is fine every now and then, but that was very inappropriate timing as well as very rude, especially since you represent the name of your Household as well. Bad." She sounded as if she was scolding a young child.

"Shtop iiiit! Yahr gonna rip my fasche off!" Mika complained, tears welling up in her eyes. "Owh-kay! Owh-kay! I'm sorwy! I apelogeizes!"

Grayfia, after some consideration, acquiesced, releasing the sides of Mika's face, once Mika was free, she immediately dashed away from the Silvery maid and clung to her brother's side, tears still in her eyes. "And _you_." Grayfia said pointedly, turning to Shirou.

"Me?"

"You should not encourage such behavior in your younger Sister," Grayfia said harshly, wagging her finger at Shirou as a mother would. "The influences around her play a large role in her emotional development and that includes _you_. Be a better influence."

"Yeah well, considering I had to raise her and myself since we were kids." Shirou said in defiance. "I'd disagree and say, all things considered, she turned out pretty good."

"Ah ah." Grayfia uttered severely. "None of that sass."

"Look, just 'cause everyone else craps themselves around you, don't expect me to do the same." Shirou then looked her straight in the eye. "You. Don't. Scare me."

"Would you prefer I scold you more harshly?" Grayfia asked. "I am well within my rights as the servant with seniority to deliver any punishment to my fellow staff as I see fit."

"But the right to punish my servants in my territory falls to me, Grayfia." Rias said, shriveling immediately when Grayfia's piercing gaze landing on her. "I mean…Um…We have to get ready for the game."

Grayfai blinked, unfazed. "Of course, Milady," She agreed. "I will take my leave." The maid moved for the door. "Ah before I forget: This Rating Game battle will also be viewed by members of both households from a different location through broadcast. Maou Lucifer-sama will also be viewing this battle. Please do not forget about it."

"Oh," Rias noted dryly. "Brother dearest."

"No Rias, didn't you hear her?" Shirou asked. "She said Lucifer, not your Brother."

"Lucifer _is_ her Brother, Shirou." Mika said.

Shirou blinked. "…Explain."

"Oh yeah," Akeno said, snapping her fingers. "He was out alone with Asia for most of our training. Shirou didn't undergo the same education as Asia and Mika did. He missed a great deal of it, including the part about the Four Maous."

"Well, I'm both interested and curious now." Shirou then turned to the others. "So someone explain it to me."

"In the previous Great War, the four Maou-samas that ruled over the Underworld were Lucifer, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Leviathan. But after so many great battles they were in, all four of them passed away a long time ago."

"Damn," Shirou gasped. "All of them are dead. Wait, so who's leading the Underworld now?"

"The truth is, there were actually two great powers that ruled the Underworld, the first was the Maou's, the second, the Great King Faction."

Shirou raised a brow. "Great King?"

Kiba nodded. "The Great King Faction is the Faction in the Devils government that's centered around the Bael family of the Seventy-Two Pillars."

"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask. "Shirou interrupted. "What are the Seventy-Two Pillars?"

"The Seventy-Two Pillars are the Seventy-Two Pure-Blooded Noble Family that lead the Underworld." Grayfia explained this time. "In the past, all Seventy-Two of them were stable and strong and the one that led them was the First Pillar known as the Bael Family, they are the only Nobles in the Underworld that hold the title of Great King, the highest title a Noble can get, and that gives them equal influence on the Underworld as the Devil Kings."

"When the Maou's passed away, the Bael Family and their Faction became the de facto leaders of the Underworld." Mika chimed in. "But even with them, the Underworld still needed Devil Kings to go on, so the head of the Great King Faction chose four powerful Ultimate-Class Devils from the Seventy-Pillars to take the empty thrones the Maou's left behind and became the new Maous."

"And Rias' brother is one of them?" Shirou questioned.

"That's right." Kiba continued. "In truth, after the Great War a large number of Pure-Blood Devils lost their lives, only Thirty-Three of the Seventy-Two Pillars survived. And even with the new Maous, the Underworld still has problems functioning. Though fortunately, the New Devils Kings are a huge help since they have power equal to the Old. And the Chief's Brother, Sirzechs Lucifer is the Strongest among them."

"Wait, wait." Shirou stopped him. "Are you saying that Rias' brother is the Strongest Devil King? And he's even as Strong as the Old Lucifer, the first Devil?!" Shirou asked, really excited.

"Uh…Yes?" Kiba said, feeling concerned.

Mika decided to throw fuel on the fire. "Not just that, Sirzechs Lucifer is also known as the "Crimson Satan". He is said to be the Strongest Devil in all the World."

Shirou was now trembling with excitement. _"Sirzechs Lucifer…The Crimson Satan…The Strongest Devil."_ Shirou had a smile on his face that sent a chill down Rias's spine. _"I really want to meet him… And I can't wait to fight him."_

"Shirou, I don't like that look." Rias said, nervous. "Just what are you thinking?"

As if flipping a switch, Shirou's face instantly returned to normal. "Don't worry about it Rias."

Rias blinked and stared. _"Somehow, that only worries me more. For some many reasons."_

Shirou changed the subject. "So, since your Brother's a King, does that mean you're a Princess?"

"Rias was surprised by the sudden question. "Hmm, oh well, even though his position doesn't officially affect my rank, most people in the Underworld call me Princess Rias. So un-officially, yes I'm a Princess."

Shirou rubbed the back of his head. "Huh, well I'm gonna keep calling you _Rias_."

Rias smiled. "That's fine, I actually prefer that."

"It's about time." Grayfia announced, a signal to end all current conversation. "Everyone, please step into the magic circle. Once the battle starts, you will be transported to the battlefield from there. Furthermore, once you get transported, you cannot leave until the game has come to an end, or you have been rendered unable to fight. Any questions?"

Shirou raised his hand. "Yeah Ah, will this hurt? 'Cause I'm still new to this whole, teleporting thing."

"I assure you, the transportation will be completely painless. Any other questions?"

"None," Rias answered before turning to her servants. "Let's go, everyone."

Giving silent confirmation, they all followed her to the center of the magic circle.

Shirou took his place at the back of the group, directly behind Mika and Asia, the latter of whom reached out for his hand. Shirou could see it plainly on her face. Even if Asia had become a Devil, this was her first real fight.

Shirou, averting his eyes, sighed and grasped Asia's hand just as tightly.

One by one, each member of Rias's team vanished in a flash of light.

Shirou only remembered being the last one to vanish.

* * *

"Oh, hooray." Shirou cheered unenthusiastically. "Another club room."

When the light had faded and they had reached their destination, Shirou found himself thoroughly disappointed.

"It was agreed upon by both Raiser and I and put together by our families." Rias said, taking a seat on the couch. "He cared little where we fought, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to have a little bit of a home-field advantage."

"Well, it's not really much of an advantage, considering they also have a map of the whole School, since it's the battlefield." Mika pointed out.

The conversation was interrupted when the speakers, hidden in an unknown location, blared.

[Welcome everyone, my name is Grayfia, a servant of the House of Gremory, and I will be the overseer of this match between Lady Rias Gremory and Lord Raiser Phenex.]

"If she's a servant of your family, what are the chances of her calling a fair game?" Shirou asked. "Even if practically all the big names in the Underworld are watching, the problem is that the authority lies with the people who set this up, to begin with."

Rias nodded. "I understand your concerns, but don't worry my family wouldn't go that far even if they're siding with Raiser, the Rating Game is always monitored by the rules admen, and they are completely unbiased not matter whose fighting. So the game will be completely fair."

"So, we just have to focus on beating them?"

"Pretty much."

[In the name of my Master, Sirzechs Lucifer, I will be keeping my eye on this match. By using both Lady Rias and Lord Raiser's opinion, we created this battlefield which is a replica of the school, Kuoh Academy, which Lady Rias attends to in the human world.]

Shirou looked out the window, noticing further similarities between their Kuoh Academy and the replica. The only difference was the sky. It was neither darkness of night nor the light of day. It was a sort of dark yet glowing green sky, appearing similar to the _aurora borealis_ in some respects. Even from the ground, Shirou could tell, was laced with magic. Signs of the barrier that their battlefield had been built within. It was colorful at least.

[The location where both teams were transported will be their "base". Lady Rias's "base" would be the Occult Research Cub's clubroom located in the old school building. Lord Raiser's "base" would be the Student Council's room located in the new building. In order to receive a Promotion, all Pawn-Ranked must reach the enemy's base to do it.]

"So, go where we were already planning on going?" Shirou wondered rhetorically. "Gee, what a great idea."

"It does give us another advantage though." Mika stated.

"What do you mean?" Rias asked.

Mika didn't respond. However, her eyes became hidden behind the shadows of her bangs, and her mouth curved upwards, revealing a malicious, toothy smirk.

[Now it's the time for the commencement of the battle. Also, this match will continue till dawn in humans time. So, Game starts now.]

"Really?" Shirou asked, skeptical "They want us to fight till dawn? they don't seriously expect this fight to take _that_ long, do they?"

"It might sound like much, but some games do last that long." Mika explained. "The Rating Game is like a strategy game rather than an all-out brawl so it takes time to finish. There are some that end in a short time, but a long time limit just means they don't have to use a default to decide the winner."

Shirou shrugged. "I guess that makes sense."

Rias walked over to the desk resembling the one she owned back home, looking through the drawers.

"What are you looking for, Rias?" Akeno asked.

"If they're making it an exact replica of the club room, it should be—" Rias paused, smiling. "Aha!" She pulled out a sheet of paper with various shapes and labels on it. A map. "With this, we can begin setting up our strategy."

"Is that a map of the campus?" Shirou asked.

Rias nodded. "That's right, I had one in my desk, so there would also be one in the replica desk."

Shirou raised a brow. "Buttt, why didn't you just stuff the map in your pocket or something?"

Rias blinked. "Because…That's a good point and I didn't think of that."

The others looked at the two of them both amazed and surprised by the fact that even in this situation can still do their usual back and forth lingo, or perhaps they were just unaware of it.

"Anyways, hasn't the game already started?"

"Yes and no," Rias answered. "Though the game has officially begun, there's always a brief period of peace at the beginning of ones with this format. In short, just as Raiser will take time to plan his assault, we will have time to consider our counterattack."

Mika then got up off the couch and went over to the desk.

She examined the map closely, rubbing her chin. "It's not a very stable battlefield outside of the buildings. Our enemies will have an advantage in open areas due to their numbers advantage, so we should try our best to fight in secluded or crowded areas where it'll be harder from them to attack us all at once, such as a forest or inside the buildings."

"But isn't it dangerous to have us fight in so little space?" Kiba wondered. "I'm not sure I'll be able to fight to my fullest in a narrow hall if my enemy also possesses speed or reflexes that rival or surpass mine."

"That's true in your case." Mika agreed. "So those areas would probably be best occupied by people who have more explosive damage like Rias, Akeno, or my brother. Koneko is a possibility too, but not on her own. A tank's no good on her own, so I have the first phase of our battle plan be about trimming down the enemies numbers and then you and Koneko will be together on the offensive to cover each other's weaknesses." Mika informed him. "Will that work for you?"

Kiba was surprised but felt he didn't see much of a problem with that plan, so he nodded. "I guess that'll work."

"Good, now stop disturbing me," Mika looked back at the map. "I need figure out…but maybe if I…hmm…." Mika just drifted off by that point, staring intently by the piece of paper outlining the replicated campus.

"Mika-san?" Asia asked, tapping the younger sister on the shoulder. However, Mika was too deeply absorbed in her own thoughts to notice. "Mika-san?" She tried to reach for the younger girl, but a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her.

Shirou shook his head. "She said not to disturb her, just leave her. Mika gets like this when she's planning something."

"…But will we know the plan if she doesn't tell us about it?" Koneko asked.

Shirou crossed his arms behind his head. "She'll let you know about it when it's finished."

"And how do we know it will work?" Kiba added.

Shirou narrowed his eyes at him. "Really, you just asked a question and she gave you a compromise, and yet you're asking for more?" He reminded Kiba.

Kiba then closed his mouth, realizing Shirou had made a good point.

"Look just wait until you hear it before you start complaining." Shirou told them. "Remember, she's our strategist."

Rias looked at the girl mouthing an endless string of words to herself while tracing lines on the map in front of her. Then she looked at Shirou wearing his usual expression of confidence.

However, she noticed a vast difference from normal.

Whereas she had come to expect the smugness of overwhelming self-confidence radiating from her Pawn, she was stunned to see him show this much faith in anyone else, even if it was his own Sister…

 _Shirou looked out into the deep starry night sky. "Of course I do. You gotta believe in your family. Otherwise no one will."_

 _Mika leaned forward wrapping her arms around Shirou and resting her head on his chest. "I know you can beat him, and I know you can beat anyone. I'll always believe in you."_

Rias believed she knew why. Rias had no doubt that the trust the two had in one another was immense, as was their care for one another. Shirou would not take part in something that would endanger his own flesh and blood if he considered even for a second that their plans would not succeed.

Rias saw that now.

She smiled. "He's right, you all should have more faith." Rias spoke out, getting everyone's attention, she turned to Kiba and Koneko. "While Mika's getting our strategy prepared, why don't you two go start setting up traps around our base. I don't want Raiser's servants able to get the first shot at us while before we're prepared."

"Good plan." Mika called out of her trance. "But try to spread to avoid concentrating them, and don't make them too powerful. We want to stall, not deter. We just want a little breathing space around our territory in case we're forced into a physical confrontation early on."

Kiba and Koneko turned to Rias again, who nodded. "I trust her judgment, remember _I_ chose her as our strategist."

Without further words, Kiba and Koneko set out, closing the door behind them.

"Akeno, are you good at making replicas?" Mika asked.

"Yes," Rias's Queen answered. "But aren't Kiba and Koneko also setting up traps?"

"I'm not talking about illusions, I mean physically replicas?" Mika clarified.

Akeno raised a brow. "I could, but why?"

"I'm planning something, and it requires a replica." Mika mumbled, her eyes glazing back over.

"Akeno, It's fine." Rias chimed in, assuring her. "It's part of a bigger plan."

Akeno noticed the look in Rias's eyes, that said she was sure this would work. "Alright then, what exactly do you need a replica of?"

"In due time, both Rias and myself will help you." Mika said, surprising the two Third-Years, they didn't know what she was planning but it must be big if it needs the combined effort of all three of them. "First, we have other preparations to make." Mika then went back into her trance.

Despite the fact that they had officially started the battle, the atmosphere was fairly relaxed.

Shirou walked up to Rias. "Hey… Rias."

"Yes, Shirou?"

Shirou tried to find the right words. "This…This may not be the best time…"

"Time for what?" Rias asked, confused.

"It's just…" Shirou then breathed out, and smiled. "I wanted you to know, I appreciate the help."

Rias smiled even more than Shirou, and she didn't care to hide it. "You're very welcome."

The atmosphere was ALARMINGLY relaxed.

Between the club's president and her roommate, Asia could not help but put on her own smile. "I'm glad you two are friends now. You're getting along so well now."

Rias blushed slightly while Shirou raised a brow.

"Well, like I said, we _did_ come to an agreement," Rias explained.

"It's true we did, but I still don't think of you as a friend," Shirou bluntly pointed out. "We're just working together."

[…Oh…]

It was hard to tell who was more disappointed between Asia and Rias.

"But couldn't you consider acting like this all the time?" Asia asked. "It's nice when you and Chief-san don't fight as much." It was hard being in the middle of an argument. If Asia had a Mother and Father, she presumed they would have been just like Shirou and Rias when they fought.

Shirou looked back and forth between them and then sighed. "I don't mind things staying like this, but I think you two aren't getting something, the two of us don't need to be friends."

Both Rias and Asia both widened their eyes at his claim.

"We don't need to be friends?" Rias repeated. "What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said, there's no need." Shirou said, with a shrug. "Think about it, when fighting together we just have to cooperate to work together, and when having a conversation like this we just have to get along, friendship isn't a necessary factor."

"But Shirou, even if we don't need to be friends, I'd still like to be friends."

Shirou looked a little confused by her words. "Well Rias, I don't why you would. But even so, there isn't really a reason for us to be friends if you just want things to be like how they are now then everything should be fine the way it is now."

"But it's not the same, Shirou-san." Asia argued. "You became my friend even when you didn't have to, and hearing you call me your friend made me happy. Why can't you do the same for Chief-san?"

"That's different."

"How?" Rias asked.

"Think about this for a minute." Shirou told her. "With Asia, even without the whole "saving her from death" thing, our relationship is different from the rest of you guys, we live together, spend time together, and look out for each other." Shirou listed. "On the other side of things, we haven't done a single thing together, Rias."

Rias tilted her head a bit, she didn't expect that response at all. "What are you talking about? we've spent plenty of time together." Rias argued.

"You might want to double-check your memory." Shirou retorted. "The only time we've ever spent together is whenever I have Devil work or during a fight."

Rias paused and thought back on it, she soon realized Shirou had made a valid point. From the moment Shirou had first become a Devil until this very moment, they had not done a single thing that friends would do. The only time they would interact would be when Shirou would come to the club room the start his work on making pacts, or when they were fighting against foes be they Stray Devils, Fallen Angels, or Raiser and his servants. The agreement they made more than a week ago and right now was the closest, fondest moments the two of them have shared and they were based around a fight that would determine both his sister's and her own fate. Thus Shirou was correct in saying they hadn't done anything as friends.

Rias was upset, but tried to hide it.

"So, you'd prefer we weren't friends?" Rias asked.

"We're acquaintances on normal days and comrades on battlefields, but friends is a bit of a stretch."

"And I can't change your opinion?"

Shirou shook his head. "Sorry, but I'm not the kind of guy who gives out his friendship to often."

Rias knew _that_ was true.

A long silence ensued after that.

.

.

.

.

.

"You're right…. We aren't friends." Rias decided.

"Chief-san!" Asia cried.

"But I want to change that."

"What?"

"Say wha?"

Now it was Shirou's turn to be confused.

"You may think there's no reason for us to be friends. But back then, when we stood under the night sky, you told me you didn't mind lending me your strength." Rias stared expectantly at Shirou. "Right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"But you also said, you understood me, I want the same."

"What?"

Rias' gaze softened. "Shirou, looking at you now…I see you in a different light from when we first meet. You say you understand me, but I still can't say I understand you. But I want to understand, I want to know more about you as a person, and I want you to see me as someone you can trust and rely on."

Shirou couldn't see deception in her words but didn't know where this was coming from. "Why would you want that?"

Then, with dead-serious eyes, Rias answered. "Because that's what family does." Shirou blinked. "And even if you don't agree, we _are_ family, bound by the rose sigil of my clan. That's why I want us to stand together in this battle, both as your master and your family. And more than that, after this battle is over, I want you to be able to see me and all of us as your friend. And I want us to be friends even if you don't think we have to."

"Is this a Devils pact?" Shirou wondered jokingly.

"It's a promise." Rias corrected.

It was hard to judge what Shirou was thinking given the various emotions that flashed across his face.

He leaned forward, opening his mouth to respond.

"Heh…" Shirou seemed almost amused, his lips curving upwards. "Well, we'll see how it goes."

Both Rias and Asia smiled, with relief and hope respectively since he didn't outright refuse.

"I GOT IT!"

The other occupants in the room jumped when Mika suddenly shot upwards, flinging her writing utensils into the air.

She grabbed the large sheet of paper that acted as a map, holding it as if it was some sort of glorious victory trophy.

"I've finished making last-minute alterations to the plan. "Mika announced, smiling brightly. "It's full-proof!"

Rias exchanged glances with her other two servants before turning to Mika. "Alright then, I'll start recalling the others so we can all discuss it."

"What's the verdict, Mika?" Shirou asked. "Will the plan win it for us?"

The little girl pouted. "Hard to say. On paper, it's flawless. It depends on everyone fulfilling their roles." She then turned to Rias. "Can I count on you not to run off?"

"Without a doubt." Rias responded, pridefully.

"Alright then." Mika decided, taking a seat on her Brother's lap. "We're in business."

Shirou blinked. "I don't remember becoming a seat."

"Hush! This is my reward for being good." Mika decided.

"You know there's a thing called "consent"."

"And there's a thing called "restraint" too, but I don't care about that either." Mika replied, leaning on Shirou's shoulder.

"H-Hold on!" Asia stood up. "Mika-san, you shouldn't go around and say suggestive things like that!"

"Are you sure that's what you're upset about?" Mika asked, cuddling with her Brother. "Or are you more upset that you don't get to rest on the throne that is my Brother's lap?"

"Huh?" This time, Asia lit up redder than a Christmas tree. She turned away. "I-It's not like that! I just don't want to see you two fall into such depravity and develop an unhealthy relationship! I-It's not as though I feel that way towards your brother!" Her face lit even redder. "N-Not that you a-aren't a very appealing person, Shirou-san! I mean, you are! very appealing! I wouldn't mind if it was you-Th-That's not what I meant either!" Asia wisely covered her face with both hands and stopped talking, steam rising from her ears.

"Hey, there's nothing unhealthy about our relationship." Mika declared. "Remember, we're Devils now, so this of both legal and accepted."

BOINK!

Faster than both of them could react, Shirou bonked both of them on the head, thus ending this exchange.

"Owie!" Asia whined.

"Ouchie!" Mika whined.

"SHUT IT!" Shirou yelled. "Stop making everyone think I'm some kind of Sis-con, and you," Shirou pointed at Asia. "Quit following her pace, I've got to focus on the fight right now." Shirou then sighed. "Geez… What am I going to do with you two?"

"Well, I don't know about you." Rias said, smiling. "But I'm already having fun."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Rias was to busy laughing to give Shirou a proper answer…

Silence would only come with time, and from there…

The real battle began.

* * *

Eight silhouettes passed through the darkness of the woods surrounding the Occult Research Club building, almost impossible to see with the naked eye.

They invaded the territory intent on fulfilling a single purpose:

To take out the enemy leader.

It was to be an easy win. After all, under Raiser Phenex, these eight women had already played in a total of ten Rating Games. They faced rookies, children.

There was, Ile and Nel are two very young girls with turquoise hair, which they keep tied to one side of their head with a yellow ribbon (opposite to their sister), and blue eyes. Both of their outfits consist of gym uniforms, which consist of white t-shirts with blue accents, black leggings, and blue sneakers over knee-high socks, similar to the Kuoh Academy's girls' gym uniforms, albeit without the logo. They also wear an orange wristband on their right wrist. Both of their chainsaws are colored blue, but they carry them in different-colored gym bags when not in use (Ile carries a blue bag, while Nel carries a red bag).

Then there was Ni and Li are two young girls, appearing to be in their teens. Being twins they sport similar appearances, with the major difference being Ni's red eyes and blue hair, in contrast to Li's blue eyes and red hair. Also, Ni ties her hair in a ponytail, while Li has hers in a braid with a pink bow tied at the end. Both of them have trademark light brown cat ears with black stripes. They also wear piercings on their ears, with Li having two gold earrings on her left ear and Ni having blue colored ones on her right. Similarly, both of them have a fang sticking out of their mouths, with Ni having hers to her left, Li having hers on her right, thus mirroring each other. Ni appears a bit shorter than Li. Both of them wear short skimpy, white sailor uniforms that reveal their abdomen, shoulders, and lower breasts, and wear short black skirts. They are also shown to tie their orange ascots in different ways respectively. Also, they're always seen wearing red and blue fighter's glove and leg guards matching their hair color respectively.

There also were the two maids, Marion And Burent. Marion is a young girl with shoulder-length light brown hair and dark brown eyes, dressed in a buttoned, sleeveless, French maid uniform with a white laced design, along with a standard maid headpiece, cuffs, and a white half-apron to go with the set. She also wears light grey tights. And, Burent is a young girl with shoulder-length brown hair, dressed in a sleeveless French maid uniform that exposes her breasts cleavage with a white lace design on the edges, as well as a maid headpiece, half-apron, and forearm length finger-less gloves.

With them was, Shuriya is a young woman with long pale blue hair and amber eyes. She has tanned skin and is seen wearing a bikini made up of a metallic underwire brassiere and a silk loincloth that exposes her sides. She also wears a silver-colored tiara and neck rings with a ruby and blue gem respectively. Other accessories that she wears include ruby orb earrings, a snake-themed bracelet on her upper arm, and a transparent pink veil across both her arms. Shuriya, notably, has purple highlights around her eyes.

Finally Mira, a young girl with blue hair and light brown eyes. Her hair is styled with four short ponytails, with two of the four-pointed up and the remaining two pointed down. The front of her hair features split bangs going across her forehead, with side bangs framing her face. Her outfit consists of a white haori with a red obi, which is worn under a red happi coat. She wears bandages on her forearms and shins and wears black guards over her hands. For footwear, she wears a pair of zori.

These eight women where all eight of Raiser's Pawns.

It was unsettling however, there was a complete lack of resistance (aside from a small trap here and there that did nothing more than stall them for a few moments), a fact which had spurred the all-in invasion by the Pawns.

Since the Rating Game had begun, thirty minutes had passed.

They had each gone to their assigned areas, anticipating to ambush or be ambushed, but not a single blow was struck.

They each waited in silence and caution, expecting some sort of elaborate trick or powerful spell to come from thin air, but there was nothing.

At first, it was amusing how cowardly they were. Their master had suspected that their opponents had decided to utilize a defensive battle strategy, but after a period of time Raiser had begun to grow impatient.

He did not say it out loud, but many of his servants suspected Raiser was actually disappointed. For all his Pride and condescending behavior to those outside of his family, he always got a sort of thrill in challenging other nobles. He considered a dual with the prodigal child of the Gremory Family, his own bride, quite enticing. A game of power and a game of wits and strategy. That was what he desired.

Unfortunately, there did not seem to be much strategy at all. They had met no challenging obstacles as they approached the enemies base.

Even as they approached, said base in the distance, now able to see it through the trees, underwhelmed by its appearance, they failed to realize any threat approaching.

Until…

"Well, well, look what we have here." A rough, almost arrogant male voice noted. "Looks like a large amount of prey have gathered around."

"Who's there!?" The Miko girl, Mira called out.

There was a rustle of leaves as a lone figure walked out from the shadows of the forest, stepping right in front of the squadron of Pawns. He was a seemingly-dangerous young man with clear Silver-hair. Dressed in his intimidating Jet-Black combat outfit.

"I'm the gatekeeper."

The eight Pawns grouped together, almost forming a circle with their backs to one another so to not leave any openings.

Mira the scoffed. "So, it looks like you were holding up in your base, after all." She said. "Not much of a strategy so much as cowering like rats."

"Don't flatter yourselves," Shirou taunted. "Whoever said that was our plan?"

The Silver-haired possessor of the Boosted Gear faced them without even a speck of fear on his face. "After all, just because we don't go all-in guns blazing trying to invade, doesn't mean we don't have a plan, besides you'll never figure it out."

"If you were putting all your hope on those traps, rest assured, they have failed." Burent taunted. "You Gremory's must be defective products."

Shirou snorted. "I guess Raiser obviously didn't pick you guys for your brains." He taunted back.

[What!]

Most of the Pawns were insulted by his remark.

"You're already in the trap." If the eight Pawns weren't on alert before, they were now. They all drawn their weapons, expecting something to leap out of the shadows. "Hmm? if you're expecting the others to show up, then don't worry." Shirou then gestured to the building a little distance behind him. "They're all still in the base and they won't be joining us here, no matter what."

The staff-wielding girl, Mira gave him a dubious look. "I see, so they sent you here as a sacrifice to stall us." She pointed the other end of her weapon at him. "I guess the heiress of the Gremory family is a little more ruthless with her servants than we gave her credit for."

Shirou smirked. "Fuck, a weak little piss-ant like you shouldn't be so cocky." Shirou retorted. "Just because _you're_ all useless on the battlefield by yourselves, don't assume I am too."

"Are calling us useless?!" Mira yelled outraged.

"The reason I'm here is to finish you eight and cut the enemies number in half." Shirou clarified. "I'm the only one here because I alone am enough against the likes of you."

"Now whose being cocky?" They all prepared themselves to fight. "We'll make quick work of you and finish off the rest inside. We've kept Lord Raiser waiting long enough."

"Oh, what's the rush? Are you in that much of a hurry to go back a lick Raiser's ass?" Shirou taunted, his face completely calm. "Sorry, but he's in for another face-full of fist once I reach him."

Mira sneered. "You're a fool if you think we'll let you near Lord Raiser!" She then glared at him. "I still can't understand how a mongrel like you was even able to lay a hand on him."

Shirou still had his calm, arrogant expression on his face. "What I can't understand is why it's so hard to figure out something so simple…" He moved to take a step forward to his opponents. However, this instant the sole of his boot touch the ground…

"It's because I'm much stronger than him…"

 **Play OST Seven Deadly Sins - Hendrickson**

None of them could think, none of them knew what had happened, Mira couldn't even begin to assume what had just occurred. The voice of the Sliver-haired Pawn that was supposed to be right in front of them, she could hear it coming from so close as if he was right behind her. And the very instant he had finished uttering those words, before Mira could turn around, before any of them could even react, Shirou's right metal braced gloved fist carved into her face. Newton's first law kicked in and Mira was sent flying away from him, tumbling across the ground.

Then as the rest of them, all turned to see their enemy Pawn, standing right in the middle of their circle.

Shirou jumped up and kicked out his legs in a spinning attack which blew away the rest of them. Specifically, the one standing the closest to Mira, the exotic dancer Shuriya, which he hit first with a mid-air roundhouse kick, before hitting the others, though she took the most damage and was blown away like Mira. Shirou landed and stood back on the ground satisfied that their formation was broken.

The two maids, Burent and Marion, glared murderously at him, simultaneously extending their hands towards him, silently conjuring spells.

He turned to see them, his expression unchanged dashed towards the two of them and before they knew it, he vanished from their sight again.

"Where are you aiming?"

To their shock, their foe was once again already behind them. He gave them two elbow strikes on their backs, sending instant and harsh pain through their bodies and knocking them away.

Shirou then looked around him and saw the remaining four Pawns going on the offensive. The Loli Twins Nel and Ile were charging at his front, both wielding chainsaws intending to chop him apart piece by piece, while behind him The Cat-girl Twins Ni and Li were charging at him, intending to physically beat him into mush.

Shirou saw what they were trying to do and just scoffed. "Childs Play."

Shirou then rushed forward and headed for the chainsaw-wielding Twins.

"Disassembling time!" Both of the twins say that happily.

"You wish."

Just before he was in close range, Shirou quickly increased his speed at the last minute and moved beyond their perceptions. Once he was right in front of them, Shirou spread out both his arms and hit them both in the neck and chest area with strong Lariats. They both took large damage from this assault and were blown back. Shirou who was still in this position noticed Ni and Li appeared right behind him.

"Nya! You're wide open!" Li roared.

They both brought their fists down to hit him.

"Am I?" Shirou asked unfazed.

Faster than the both of them, he took his spread out arms and moved them from his sides to right in front of him, and planted them on the ground in front of him. With his center of gravity concentrated to his upper body, he moved his lower body up from the ground and in the air, using this position to kick out both of his legs at the Cat-girls behind him in their chins and knocking them away.

With that counterattack taken care of, Shirou put strength in his arms, pushed his whole body in the air, and backflipped before straightening out and landing his feet firmly on the ground.

Shirou then looked around, to see if they were done, feeling a bit disappointed by this lack-luster skirmish. "Was that really it?"

After a few moments, they were slowly getting up, they had bruises on the spots that Shirou hit them and some were bleeding. But they all looked like they could still fight for a while longer, looking more pissed off than hurt.

Shirou smirked. "Okay…Better."

"Kill him!" Marion yelled and they all went on the attack, coating their fist and weapons with flames.

With a battle yell, The Pawns charged forward towards him holding whatever weapon they had, intending to murder the man before them. Shirou didn't seem worried by the murderous intent and jumped back to dodge a swing from Mira's flaming staff. Marion, Burent, and Shuriya ran up to him and began sending a flurry of fire punches at Shirou, while he just stood his ground, easily parring their hits as if he was slapping away a kids punches. He then used Marion and Burent as platforms to flip backwards in mid-air to dodge Nel and Ile flaming chainsaws. Once Shirou landed, he parried more attacks that came from Ni and Li. Shirou dodged all of them as he blocked a kick by making a cross-shaped guard with his arms. The girls showed irritated or annoyed expressions as they angrily glared at Shirou.

[Why won't our attacks hit?!] Nel and Ile complained.

"He dodged my swings with ease." Mira muttered.

Shirou just watched them as he took a quick breath before looking at each of them with calculating eyes. His eyes shifted from one Pawn to the next Pawn before he crashed his fists together which made clanking sound when his metal brace knuckles hit each other.

"My turn…" Shirou muttered as the girls do a stance to try and evade his attacks when suddenly Shirou disappeared and reappeared in front of Burent as she was hit with a powerful straight punch and sent flying hitting the base of a tree in the forest. All the other Pawns stared in shock that even with their guard up, they still couldn't follow his speed.

"Shuriya! Why you!" Marion shouted, as and the other maid Burent ran towards Shirou. Marion tried to launch a kick only for it to be block as Shirou put strength into his right arm and raised it, when her kick connected with his arm, Shirou could hear the faint sounds of her bones cracking. With the first maid dealt with, Burent tried to punch him from behind, Shirou decided to do something flashily. Using the outstretched leg of Marion as a stand, Shirou front flipped over her leg as the heel of his own leg crashed into the chin of Burent, causing her to fly into the air from the impact. The other Pawns watched their comrade fly into the air, but their attention was pulled back to Shirou when they heard a yelp of pain as they saw Marion was sent flying as well, by a kick from Shirou.

Mira then jumped in the air and aimed her staff towards him, intending to strike him with its flame.

However, Shirou without even moving lazily lifted his arm and caught the staff as it was only inches away from his face. Mira then found herself in mid-air turning to pull her staff from Shirou's grip, which was as successful as trying to remove a lead pole from dry cement.

Shirou then gripped the staff and pulled it back, bringing Mira closer to him and then used his other arm to reach out and grab her the neck. Shirou then held Mira in a chokehold. Nel and Ile charged at him, hoping to save Mira. But Shirou removed the staff from Mira's grasp and spun it in the arm he was holding it with, then taking advantage of the staffs superior reach, he swung it left and right at both the Twins and knocked them both away. With that taken care of, he let go of Mira and dropped her to the ground like a sack of rice.

Mira coughed and rubbed her neck before glaring at Shirou. "My staff, give it back!"

Shirou didn't even look at her. "You want it? Come get it."

Falling for his provocation, Mira gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. Then started punching him on his torso, but she felt like she was punching a tree as her opponent was unmoved and didn't react to her attacks, while Shirou didn't even seem fazed by her hits were akin to just a toddler throwing a fit. Mira then brought her fist back and punched him with all her strength. But like the rest, it amounted to nothing.

Mira then took a step back and gasped, while uncontrollably trembling, as if she was now painfully aware of her lack of power and the difference in their abilities.

Shirou raised a brow. "Done? Alright then."

Shirou then quickly hit her with a fast back-handed punch which sent stumbling to the side. As Mira was on the ground, she sat up and looked at the rest of her comrades, grunting. "Don't just stand there…! Hurry and get inside! We'll be able to beat this monster once we Promote!"

"Nya! Gotcha!"

"On it!"

The two cat-girls, Ni and Li ran in the direction of the building-

"I'm not soft enough to let that slide."

Only for their seemingly unbeatable enemy to appear before them. With a strong grip, he breaks the staff he swiped in two and then holds both pieces in his hands, one for each. Now increasing his reach, he spreads out his arms and slams both pieces of the staff into the sides of Ni and Li's heads as they were about to run passed them. As they were both knocked away by Shirou's attack, they didn't get far as Shirou dropped the broken wood and grabbed both girls by their legs. He then lifted them up and threw them in the direction of their comrades.

"I told you, I'm the gatekeeper. And that means you have to get past me to advance." Shirou looked at them, with an intimidating expression. "You shall not pass."

Even though they were all injured, all the Pawns stood together, trying to figure out how they could get past this wall known as Shirou Tsukiharu.

Shirou then looked at them bored and scratched the back of his head. "Still, this is lame. I guess eight Pawns each worth one doesn't equal one Pawn worth eight. I guess the only thing you girls are good for is, "fap material"."

That struck a nerve for them. Then the eight of them circled around him until they surrounded him with each of them on a different angle.

Once again they all charged towards him, giving another battle yell as if to boost their strength. Shirou stood there with a sneer on his face, preparing himself for their next attacks. Trying to outsmart their enemy, they charged in a key-chained movement style, blocking every opportunity that may allow Shirou to counterattack them. They had different fight styles between them, which they hoped may give them an advantage over his speed and technique. To their frustration, Shirou swiftly avoided every move, he was standing in one spot without moving, simply dodging as the eight of him circled around him attacking in rapid succession, not stopping for even a second. And yet, they hadn't even some much grazed Shirou with their assault. He was hardly even breathing.

The eight Phenex Pawns persisted to keep their attacks coming, but none of them could hit the ever calm Shirou even once. After many struggling tries, Shirou decided to end this pointless struggle and flared his magic, creating a magical aura around himself.

Once he flared his aura, all the girls who surrounded him were blown away each in different directions. Hitting the ground a few feet away from him.

During his training, Ren showed Shirou this method of using his magic power. By power up his magic around his body rather than using it to cast a spell, he can create a magical aura around himself which can even act like a sort of defensive force covering his body, the intensity depends on how much magic you have and how much control you have. Since he had seen this aura before from Rias whenever she powered up, he basically got what is supposed to look like, and had learned it himself during training.

"Not bad." Shirou commented. "That really helped stretch my muscles."

"Grrr…" Mira grunted at him.

The eight Phenex Pawns struggled to get up this time, standing beside one another again.

Shirou smiled. "Looks like you've reached the limit."

They all glared at him, anger that he was right. He looked to them like he was just toying with them.

"What are we going to do?" Marion asked. "Neither our flames or our weapons have had any effect. And our fists just bounce off that smug bastard!"

"Well, of course." Shirou agreed. "After all, even if eight rabbits come together it's not like they can beat a wolf."

They clenched their teeth at his continued condescending words.

"It doesn't matter how strong you are!" Mira declared, stepping forward. "We absolutely must defeat you, for the sake of victory in this Rating Game! And for Lord Raiser!"

[For Lord Raiser!] The rest of them said loudly as they intended to keep fighting.

Shirou smirked. "I don't hate passionate people like you." Shirou's smirked then vanished and was replaced with a frown. "But I'm heartless in a fight."

Shirou then let his arms drop to his sides. "I don't believe in empty reasons like fight for myself. Or lame reasons like fighting for others. I just have something I need to do." Shirou then got into a fighting stance. "So let's finish this."

They all flared up their fists or weapons and charged forth. All and screaming out as they charged, Shirou then charged as well simply narrowing his eyes. They meet in a few moments and both sides clashed.

BOOM!

 **Music Off**

* * *

Back at the clubroom, Mika, Rias, and Akeno were all working on magic circles, one for each of them.

It was deemed best for everyone else if Shirou alone went to face the coming enemy.

Thus far, the plan had gone off without a hitch…

But Rias just could not help but feel nervous.

Letting Shirou fight Raiser's entire first wave on his own worried her, Kiba even offered to go with him. But Shirou assured them it wasn't needed.

Asia herself felt nervous as well. She considered praying to God for Shirou's well-being before remember it would just cause her pain.

"Is he going to be okay?" Asia asked, voicing the question she, Rias, Akeno, Kiba, and Koneko had been pondering since Shirou had left.

Mika crossed one leg over the other, appearing as though she was nodding off. "He'll be fine. As long as Big Bro sticks to the plan we just have to wait until the time comes, we're almost ready."

"But Mika." Kiba voiced his concern. "Even if Shirou-kun is strong, he's outnumbered eight to one." He pointed out. "Even if the plan is a stable one, his odds our low."

"So what?" Mika asked, surprising them all with how unconcerned she was taking all this. "Even if they're low, they're not zero so they're plenty." Mika said, without a shred of doubt. "He won't lose, no matter how many he's up against, he'll win."

"But what if he…" Asia opened her mouth to speak but quickly closed it.

Rias placed a hand on the former nun's shoulder. "Hey," She said reassuringly. "Don't forget: Shirou never gives up. He's been training himself for this fight just like the rest of us. So let's believe in him, he's never let us down before, after all."

Those words were enough to make Asia smile. It was true, and it was also something she had found admirable about her friend.

"And we're just about done!" Mika called out. "The plan's ready for action!"

"Good then let's contact Shirou." Rias decided.

Mika nodded, sitting up straight, tapped the bud in her ear. "Alright, let's go. Asia, you come with us."

"Oh, Okay." Asia said nervously as She followed her master, the group's Queen, and her roommate. Kiba and Koneko got up to leave as well. Once they left the room both groups walked in different directions.

With preparations in place, they were getting into position.

* * *

{Hey, Big Bro can you hear me?}

"Mika?" Shirou tapped the earbud in his left ear. "Yeah, loud and clear."

{We're all done on our end, how about you?}

Shirou smiled and nodded. "Great, everything went off without a hitch."

{Perfect, now just do what we planned and that'll be it.}

"Got it." Shirou said before their conversation ended.

He then dusted off a bit of burnt rubble on his sleeve and looked to his side.

"You know, I'm reasonably surprised." He commented. "I didn't think you guys would still be here."

What he's looking at the fallen forms of all eight of the Pawns he was fighting against. Each of them was beaten, bruised, and bloodied on the ground. Though they were still conscious they were in great pain.

"You…" Mika coughed. "Y-You monster."

Shirou shrugged. "If I had a yen for every time I heard that."

Shirou just looked at them with irritation and sighed. "Well. Whatever, I think I'll head back to the base."

That immediately got their attention. They were surprised and shocked at hearing him say that.

"What? You're going to just leave?" Shuriya asked.

Shirou nodded. "Yep, this is a waste of time, so I'm leaving."

Marion sneered and lifted her head from the ground. "So you're running away?"

Shirou leaned down and picked up a pebble, he then flicked it at Marion, hitting her in the forehead and knocking her back down.

"Augh!"

"Marion!" Burent shouted concerned for her fellow maid.

Shirou scoffed. "Hmph… I can beat you by flicking a rock at this point. This isn't worth my time, so I'm heading back." Shirou then turns around. "If you still feel like fighting though, feel free to follow me."

Mira's eyes widened. "Are you an idiot? That would give us the ability to Promote."

"Yes, that's the idea."

Mira was bemused at this point. "You, want us to Promote?"

"If you guys power up a bit, this might actually be worth some effort." He taunted. "I mean, you still won't be a match for me but you'll do for a workout."

Mira then clenched her teeth. "Don't underestimate us! We don't need to Promote to beat a dog like you!"

No sooner then she said that Shirou turned around, his magical aura flared again, but this time it spread out and covered the eight Pawns. When under Shirou's aura they all immediately shut up, feeling as though a huge weight had fallen on top of them, making them completely unable to move, and they were now feeling a sudden amount of fear coming over them as if the opponent they were fighting had changed into something they just wanted to run away from.

During his training, Shirou had learned another way of using his magic aura besides just defense, if he flared up his magic and spread it outwards he had the ability to intimidate weaker opponents and even slow them down with the weight of his power. In terms of magic he still different have as much as Rias, but he still had a strong amount in it of itself and it was plenty to strike fear into enemies this much weaker than him and who were already on the brink of defeat.

"Don't get carried away." Shirou spoke in a low tone. "If you seriously think you scrubs can fight me, even with a messily Promotion, then _you're_ underestimating _me_. "Shirou then narrowed his eyes. "Know your place, losers."

Those words felt as if they were more than just a warning, it was as if they were going to pass out soon.

Shirou then cessed his magic that was covering them. After which he turned around again and walked off in the direction of his base.

Though Shirou knew they would follow him. He smirked.

All according to the plan.

* * *

Raiser's Pawns burst through the entrance after a few minutes after Shirou had left their battle and returned her, though they learned two strange things while inside.

For one thing, there was neither hide nor hair of their enemies to be found.

The one leading them, Mira scowled. "Where are they?!" She knew she was the weakest of the group, but she was also the only one among them to take any kind of initiative at any behest besides their master's. So, naturally when she did not know something, neither did they.

"Nya, He said the rest of them were still here." Ni pointed out.

Li whined. "Maybe they left while we were fighting, Nya."

"We were out there for a while."

They were disorderly, that was for sure. They were so used to simply steam-rolling any foe that dared to stand against Raiser Phenex.

The two lolis, Nel and Ile scratched their heads.

"Hey, how come we haven't Promoted?"

"Yeah, I tried and nothing happened?"

The second strange thing that happened while they were inside was their inability to Promote. The moment they all entered the building, they all attempted to Promote to Queen. However, even though they were in the enemy base, for some reason the Promotion system hadn't kick in, they could feel no change in their power, speed, or magic.

"I know, and it doesn't make sense." Marion agreed. "This is definitely their base, so why hasn't the Promotion activated yet?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say maybe we might be able to Promote once we enter to center of their base inside, in other words, the meeting room." Mira suggested. "And if we're lucky, he'll be there to for us to defeat."

Some of them looked a little nervous.

"But, will we even be able to beat him?" Nel asked, unsure.

"We have to." Mira retorted. "Lord Raiser ordered us to capture the enemy King, there's no way we can return to him after not being able to defeat even a single enemy! Let's go!"

[Right!]

Seeing Mira's point, the group made their way up the stairs, being sure to cover every square inch of the building they passed to ensure there was no trap or surprise attack waiting in the wings.

They meet at the door to the meeting room, Mira taking point at the front of the group, putting her ear against the door, listening for some sort of commotion.

She heard the sound something flapping in the wind, likely a curtain of an open window, but no sound of movement.

Mira frowned.

"Guys, I don't like the feel of this." Marion said, nervously. "This feels like a trap, we can't even Promote, let's just return to our master and think of a different plan."

"We can't." Mira said firmly. "What do you think Lord Raiser will say if we just came back with our tails between our legs, if we run away now then the Red Dragon Emperor will still be out there." Mira reminded them. "And as long as he might be a danger to Lord Raiser, I'd rather die than let him anywhere near our master!"

With a strong push, Mira blasted the doors open.

The expected surprise attack did not follow.

The eight Pawns, stood at the doorway, their nervousness increasing by what they saw. The room inside was almost deserted, the curtains were open and sitting on the couch by himself was a comfortable looking Shirou, his arms crossed behind his head, and his legs on the table.

"I didn't think you'd actually follow me." Shirou admitted, not even looking at them. "Guess you're a little brave or you're still underestimating me?"

Mira glared and step forward. "Too bad, this time you've been cornered, [Promotion: Queen!]"

Unfortunately, Mira's call was once again unanswered and her Promotion did not come.

"What…? Why?"

Shirou smiled. "Why indeed."

Marion sneered at him. "Where is the rest of your Peerage?"

"Secret."

"Why did you want us to follow you in here?" Shuriya asked.

"Private?"

"Why can't we Promote?" Mira asked.

"I refuse to answer that."

They started to get frustrated. "Enough of this! Fight us!"

"No thanks." Shirou immediately replied, he then stood up. "You've got no Promotion so you're still not worth it. I'm not interested in weaklings."

"WELL GET INTERESTED!" Mira roared as she jumped in the air, intending to attack him, only to hers and everyone's surprise. She sails right passed him.

Then the form of Shirou starts to get static-like, similar to a hologram.

"A projection?" Burent asked, "Then where's the real one?"

Hologram Shirou turned to her with a grin. "You know I'd love to answer that, but we're out of time."

Mira let out a squeal as suddenly there was a stand magnitude in the ground beneath them, the whole room was shaking.

"What is this?" Mira questioned. "What's going on?"

"Your trap."

"What?"

Hologram Shirou walked in the center of the room. "You know, the moment you realize you're caught in a Spider Web, it's already too late." He then began to disappear. "I'll say it again. Now your place, loser."

And with that, the hologram was gone.

The shaking increased, and now the whole building was shaking violently. A bright like began to shine outside.

All the Phenex Pawns could feel the building shake like an earthquake had hit, and the floor was starting to shine a bright light just like the one out the window. Then a strong fiery blast consumed everything around them and coated the entire room and building.

Their bodies began to burn and writhe in agony, all senses being overwritten by pain. Sharp screams were heard inside the great inferno.

* * *

BOOOOOOOM!

It was an explosion that destroyed the building.

At the four corners of the building standing a few kilometers away from the building, was Rias, Akeno, Mika, and Asia.

Each was holding a magic circle.

A devastating blast detonated around the base, leaving nothing behind.

Or rather what appeared to be the base.

Observers, participants, and other parties gawked, unable to believe what had just happened.

It sounded so simple and so easy. And it was executed flawlessly.

Perhaps it was the shocked silence that kept up the tension in the air. It would also explain why the announcement was delayed by several minutes.

[L-Lord Raiser, Eight Pawns, retired!]

The four members of Rias's team flew through the forest and meet back at one spot, Kiba and Koneko were there waiting for them.

"He did it!" Asia cheered. "Mika, you did it!" Rias could only heave a sigh of relief, letting go of the weight on her chest.

"It looks like the playing field is just a little more even now," Akeno noted, smiling calmly, but possessing a hint of excitement on her face.

They needed the explosion to be strong enough and big enough to consume the whole building, and yet not use up to much magic, thus they split the work by making for magic circles and setting things up by making each magic user from the Peerage power up one. Rias never prepared such advanced traps before, and she had no idea where Mika learned how to.

Not to mention, they also used magic to create a new base, one that looked the exact same as the real one, but being fake the Pawns couldn't Promote, as they were in the wrong place. The fake base was on the opposite side of the forest, though the real one was hidden behind a barrier, so they couldn't see it.

Wait Raiser out, Create a fake base, make the enemy think it's real, stall them long enough to prepare the trap, bring them inside, escape, and then blow the place up.

The simplicity of this plan belied the true difficulty behind carrying it out. The entire plan hinged on whether Raiser would do as predicted and whether or not Shirou would be able to stall them long enough for the trap to be ready, in-favor of retreating. Though, none of them actually thought Shirou would be strong enough to overpower all of the Pawns by himself.

As they all gathered around, outside their real base, both Rias and Mika had the expression you would expect from someone after having executed such a high-risk, high pay-off gamble.

"That's only phase-one." Mika pointed out. "We've still got eight more hoes to smack."

Rias nodded, regaining her wits. Even if they had dealt Raiser's side a crushing blow, the battle was still far from over.

"Let's wait for Shirou to return and then we'll—"

As if on cue, Shirou appeared from the sky, flying towards them and landed by the group.

"Hey, not to nit-pick but," Shirou walked up to them. "I feel like the whole explosion thing was, unnecessary since I could have just retired them on my own."

Rias smiled. "Forgive me if you feel that way, but not even we could account for your overwhelming abilities."

Mika stepped up to him. "Short version, you're too strong for the plan to keep up with."

Shirou sighed. "I suppose."

Kiba then smiled nervously. "Heh, sorry I underestimated the plan, Shirou-kun."

Shirou smiled back at him. "It's cool, just never doubt me again."

Rias then turned to her servants. "Alright everyone, now it's time for us to go on the offensive, let's go!"

Shirou smirked. "Let's croak us some hoes."

The team of seven Devils of the Occult Research Club moved out.

* * *

"Lord Raiser…"

Yubelluna was by far, Raiser Phenex's favorite…

Well, perhaps beside his Sister. That territory was always a little blurry. She liked to think better of him at least.

So, she was so much better at reading his thoughts and predicting how he would react.

When the announcement came that all of his Pawns had been eliminated from the game however, she had no idea how he would react. A small part of her actually feared he would lash out in anger.

However, her master merely continued sitting as he was, his lips curved upwards as he held his Queen more closely, casually fondling her.

"Hah! It appears that Raiser's lovely Risa and adorable Mika have enough bite to back up their bark." He said. He was… Pleased. "Of course, Raiser owes his girls an apology for acting recklessly after this."

"I'm sure they know you meant no ill-intent, Lord Raiser-hyah!" Raiser's hand elicited yet another moan of pleasure from his Queen. "Th-They should be taken care of at the-Hmm! B-By the Medical staff!"

"Hmm, Raiser agrees."

"Shouldn't you be more concerned about the game, Brother?" Standing at his side, Raiser's Bishop his own sister, Ravel Phenex, scolded him softly. "Even Lady Rias could pose a threat if you lower your guard. Even if no one could ever stand before the might of a Phenex, it would still be trouble if we lose more of our forces," Though inwardly, Ravel did have concern that the Red Dragon Emperor could be a potential threat to their victory. "It would be best if we sent out Yubelluna and maybe Isabela and Xuelan to go deal with her now."

"Nonsense," Raiser replied, baffling his Sister. "As you said, Raiser could crush them at a moment's notice." Again, he smirked. "But where is the fun in that? here's a question, when was the last time we were actually challenged this fiercely?"

Ravel presumed it was a trick question. Everyone knew that no foe had ever come even close to dealing significant damage to their side in a Rating Game before. They lost a piece here and there, but excluding the two fixed matches, never suffered anything more. Her Brother would always reveal himself and, more often than not, it would end in a duel between two Kings. Their noble Pride at work. Of course, it would always end in his victory.

Yubelluna knew there would be no reasoning with her master. There were several things that defined her master: His Pride, his temper, his lust, his family, and above all else the one thing that usually drove him to act so playfully when he did not attain victory in the first move.

"Shouldn't that mean we SHOULD act more aggressively?" Ravel pointed out. "Everyone favors the union between nobles households and the birth of additional Pure-bloods, but the committee judging the game is unbiased. If they make it here and if they somehow have a plan against you, they might clench victory through some unknown strategy, and the engagement will become void."

"Let Rias and her servants come." He said with an excited glint in his eye most of them rarely saw in most fights. "If they challenge the might of our Household, we will unleash everything in order to crush them!"

Raiser Phenex loved a challenge.

* * *

 **And that's the chapter and I cannot believe I got all this down in one chapter.**

 **I decided to have an unorthodox way of starting the game because if you got the time and the necessary options why not use them. This way they took out all the Pawns in one fell swoop and cut the enemy numbers in half. They also showed everyone that they don't intend to fight an ordinary game and not to expect the obvious in this fight.**

 **And as for Shirou decimating the Pawns, well Shirou has the strength surpassing a Rook. Speed faster than a Knight. The Skill and experience born from years of fighting. He had everything over them even without Promoting or Boosting, and he's used to fighting while outnumbered so to me, the outcome made perfect sense.**

 **And before you ask, no Shirou will not be gaining a Balance Breaker by sacrificing his arm. Not in the Rating Game or at any point in the story. Yes Shirou will gain Balance Breaker sooner then Issei did in the canon, but he won't be getting a bootleg armor powerup that only lasts seconds, it's not Shirou's style to rely on such a limited power with such little usage.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review if you like the story click the follow/favorite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	13. Counterattacks and Full Domination

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. And this will be part two of the Rating Game, there will be a lot of fight this chapter and a lot of pieces being taken out so expect some action. Hope you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Counterattacks and Full Domination**

* * *

"How much longer do you think?"

"It shouldn't be much further." Kiba replied as he along with Shirou and Koneko were sprinting towards the enemies base. "We should reach the main building in a few minutes."

After the defeat of Raiser's Pawns, the Occult Research Club's plan had entered the second phase.

Said phase entailed that the group split into three.

Shirou with Kiba and Koneko being the assault team, and Akeno and Mika who would enter from a different route and head for Raiser, while Asia and Rias would be the stealth team who would sneak in and reach Raiser without being detected by Raiser's servants. It was determined that the first three would head to the main school building and face off against any of Raiser's servants, that were most likely the stronger ones and defeat them, while the second group would travel through the school buildings inside and take a direct route to Raiser, taking out any lesser servants that they might face inside. Finally, the third group would take an alternate route to Raiser and not be seen and face only Raiser without being seen.

Once there, all three groups would merge and face Raiser together.

So long as Raiser continued to do as expected.

The trip passed in silence aside from a few passing comments here and there between the Knight, Pawn, and Rook. Though it was kept to a minimum.

At first, Both Kiba and Koneko, along with Akeno objected not being able to go with Rias but consenting to Rias' (technically Mika's) reasoning that the groups needed to stay balanced.

Thus the trio of members who consisted of all the direct combat fighter in the Gremory Peerage made their way forward. As the group made their way through the forest surrounding Kuoh Academy, Shirou could only marvel at how easy their trek was.

In a single move, Raiser had lost eight of his servants. It was doubtless that such a blow would dishevel them, especially when they had previously held a near-flawless record in the Rating Games. If things went as Mika expected (Which most of them were confident that they would, even though some of them were skeptical at first they were now convinced that Mika's strategies were worth the hype), the enemy would not attempt another assault at their base. Instead, they would shore up their defences and try to pick them off.

There was only a handful of ways from them to approach Raiser's base. So long as the Pure-blood knew their objective, he could still find ways to predict their next course of action.

It was deemed best for the assault team to travel through the woods. None of them was a slouch in a fight, but while an open area provided Kiba decent legroom, it also provides ample opportunity for their foes to gang up on them. It was not preferable to route through the woods. Koneko was a heavy-hitter and there was still a great deal of room to manoeuvre in order to avoid being struck by friendly-fire or caught up in the chaos.

Shirou and Kiba suddenly stopped in place, they gestured Koneko to do the same, they all quickly hid behind a tree.

"…Someone's there." Koneko spoke.

"Yeah, but why is she alone?" Kiba asked.

The one who they felt was a lone woman standing in front of the path they were taking. She is a young woman with light brown hair and green eyes. Her outfit consists of a full set of silver armor with black accents that appears to be a cross between a European Knight (chest plate, gauntlets and greaves) and a Japanese Samurai (hip plates and shoulder guards), and wears a headband that goes across her hair and forehead. She is equipped with a broadsword and a dagger, both of which are held with brown belts slung across her hip. The broadsword is slung on her left hip, and features a red jewel on the pommel and has bandages across the handle for grip. The dagger, which is located behind her hip, features a gold hilt with bandages on the handle.

Then she speaks a loud voice of a brave woman.

"I'm the Knight of Raiser Phenex-sama, Karlamaine! I've become bored of trying to sniff through each other's strategy! Servants of Rias Gremory! Come out! I challenge you to a duel!"

She answered their previous question.

Shirou looked at her. "She sure is fired up."

Kiba placed a hand on his sword and was preparing himself to go. Koneko noticed. "…Yuuto-sempai?"

Kiba gives them both an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry, but since she introduced herself, I can't hide myself both as a Knight and as a swordsman."

Kiba then walked out to face her.

Or rather, he was about to but then Shirou stopped him by grabbing his arm.

Kiba looked back at him surprised. "Shirou-kun?"

"Sorry to tell you this, but I can't let you do that." Shirou told him, with his eyes narrowed.

"Please let go." Kiba requested. "This is something I'm honor-bound to do."

"Look I get where you're coming from." Shirou responded, pulling him back. "I know, once you've been challenged you have to accept, I follow a similar creed from all my time fighting."

"Then you know why I'm doing this."

Shirou shook his head. "That's not the problem. " Shirou then whispered. "This might be a trap."

Kiba's eyes widened. "What?"

"Just think about it, they lost half their members so naturally, they'd be on high alert." Shirou reasoned. "And yet, a piece as important as a Knight just happens to appear in front of us, _alone_. Doesn't that seem odd to you?"

Kiba thought about it for a moment. "She said she didn't want to figure out our strategy and challenged us." Kiba pointed out.

"Yeah that's what she said, but I'm betting this is a ploy to get us to come out." Shirou said. "There's probably more members with her hiding around and once we're in the open they'll ambush us."

Kiba narrowed his eyes. "But she's a Knight like myself, a true Knight wouldn't do something as dishonorable as that."

"And how do you know she wouldn't?" Shirou asked. "You don't know her so how can you be sure she shares your opinion? Besides even if she does, she still takes orders from Raiser, so if he said "do it", that's what she'll do." Shirou reasoned.

Kiba realized Shirou had made a valid point, even if it was against a Knights chivalric code, the most important thing to a Knight is carrying out the orders of their King. Thus, if she was following Raiser's plan then the possibility of an ambush did seem likely.

He nodded. "Then what should we do?"

Shirou looked out at Karlamaine and made a decision, he turned to Koneko. "Have any idea where the rest might be?"

The loli Rook nodded. "Hmm… I smell two people hiding in the trees around her."

Shirou found it a bit odd on how the First-Year in front of him seemed to usually find enemies with her strange yet strong sense of smell. Yet he decided not to question it.

"Alright, here's what we'll do, I'll go out and face her." Shirou then points to the two of them. "You two watch the space around us carefully, once the other two jump out to intercept them."

Kiba was surprised. "You're going to spring their trap?"

"I have too, I'm the one with a more flexible way of fighting, you two need to focus on fighting whoever your a good match for." Shirou pointed out. "Kiba take the right, Koneko take the left, go the second you see something move."

They both nodded determinedly.

"You can count on us."

"…We've got your back."

Shirou then got ready to fight, he then turned to them. "Still nervous?"

They were both a little surprised by his sudden question. Then slowly they both nodded again.

"A little."

"…Yes."

Shirou smiled. "…Use that."

Shirou then walked out from behind the tree and walked up to face Karlamaine.

"I'll fight you!" Shirou said walking towards her and stopping a few feet away. "Your opponent is Shirou-sama."

Karlamaine placed a hand on the hilt of her sword.

She smirked. "I'm happy that there are warriors like you in Rias Gremory's group." Karlamaine admitted pleased. "Coming out here directly from the front. That's something people with normal sanity won't do."

Shirou scoffed. "Oh please, you're one to talk. Do sane people just walk out and challenge their opponents to a duel?" Shirou pointed out.

Karlamaine blinked, then closed her eyes and smiled. "I suppose that's true. But still, I love idiots like you."

Shirou blinked. _"Wait…Is she insulting me, or coming on to me?"_

"Though to be perfectly honest, I would have preferred fighting your group's Knight." She confessed.

Shirou smirked. "Are you disappointed?"

Karlamaine shook her head. "Not at all, this works out just as well. I confess you are also an opponent I've been looking forward to fighting, ever since I last saw you."

Shirou raised a brow. "Really? I would of thought you'd be pissed at me. I mean I punched your master into a wall, TWICE, The Pawns all seemed like they wanted to kill me for that."

"As a Knight, I can't forgive you, the crime of both insulting and striking my master." Karlamaine clarified while clenching her fist, but then calmed down. "But as a swordsman, I find myself wanting to fight the strong, like warriors such as yourself. That's why right now all I feel is excitement at the idea of fighting you."

Shirou nodded. "I see, that explains it, well I'll say this. I like that mindset since I'm pretty similar." But then Shirou heard rustling in the tree's around him and frown. "But sadly, they aren't."

At that moment two members of Raiser's Peerage jumped out of hiding, just as Shirou anticipated they attempted to ambush him from both his left flank and right flank.

One of them was the Rook Xuelan and the other was Raiser's second Knight Siris.

Siris is a tall young woman with long black hair with a dark blue tint and brown eyes. Her hair features five thin ponytails going around her head, which are held up by a golden hair accessory on top of her head. Her outfit consists of a white top with black accents that is modelled after a Chinese cheongsam, red shorts, and armored, knee-high boots with matching gauntlets. The top features a diamond shape on the chest area, giving a view of her breasts and cleavage. Siris is seen with a giant Zweihänder that is mounted on her back when not in use. It features a black blade with silver edges and has a black hilt with a red handle.

Xuelan is a well-endowed young woman of Chinese descent with shoulder-length black hair and blue-green eyes. Her hair has two Chinese-style buns on both sides of her head, while the front features bangs that form a slight V-shape across her forehead. Her outfit consists of a navy blue qipao with gold accents, a white sash around her stomach, and black, low-heeled shoes. The qipao is open at the chest area, giving view to Xuelan's breasts and cleavage. She also wears black armguards over her forearms.

"You fell for an obvious trap!" Siris roared holding her Sword above her head, ready to bring it down on Shirou, hoping to cleave him in half.

"Now you will fall!" Xuelan roared her left foot covered in flames using the same ability as the Pawns, curling her leg back to kick Shirou, hoping to crack open his skull.

Shirou smirked.

"So predictable." He muttered.

Just as fast as the two of them just out of hiding, so did Shirou's allies. Koneko and Kiba appeared from their hiding spot and intercepted Shirou's attackers in their attempt at a sneak attack.

Kiba drew his Sword and parried her Zweihänder away and knocked back her would-be attempt at taking out his comrade. With her Sword knocked back, she felt it's weight pull her back as well. As her attack didn't work she straightened herself out and landed neatly on the ground.

Koneko drop kicked the second assailant and knocked her strike off course. Xuelan managed to raise her leg, guarding against the worst of the blow. The force of the strike propelled her into a nearby tree, but the Chinese garbed Rook managed to grab on to a large branch, vaulting over around the front and back twice before releasing her grip. She did almost an Olympian-Esque backflip before landing back on the ground.

Karlamaine was so surprised her eyes widened, even though she wasn't happy that they were going to use a sneak attack against their enemies, she never thought it would completely fall like that. Shirou just smirked knowing he saw right through them.

"A sneak attack." Kiba mused holding up his Sword. "Not very befitting of a Knight, don't you think?"

The woman scoffed as she raised her massive blade in front of her. "Knight is just a mere servant Rank. Only fools and children believe in trite nonsense like "honor". The way I see, as long as it benefits my master, I would gladly throw away any sense of Pride."

"That sounds like a rather depressing way to live." Kiba sighed out. He pointed his Sword at his opponent. "However, if it is a fight you want, Yuuto Kiba, the Knight of Rias Gremory will be happy to give it to you."

"You know, you act like our sneak attack was cowardly, but didn't you guys have the same plan?" Siris taunted. "You were waiting to sneak attack Karlamaine too, that's why you were hiding, guess you're not as Proud as you'd like to think."

Kiba smirked, unfazed. "A good guess, but you're wrong."

Karlamaine looked at Kiba and Koneko, and noticed how the timing of when they jumped at was too well-timed and then noticed the satisfied look on Shirou's face. Her eyes widened before she narrowed them. "You anticipated this."

Xuelan and Siris were surprised when they heard Karlamaine.

"What?" Siris asked.

"What do you mean?" Xuelan asked.

Kiba nodded. "That's right, Shirou-kun knew exactly that you were planning an ambush. If we all came out at once you'd have the advantage, we would be surrounded on all three sides and you would have first blood. And so he had me and Koneko stay behind and wait, the moment you came out of hiding we would cover him and thwart your attempt at taking him out, though honestly once you know a sneak attack is coming it's pretty easy to stop." He taunted.

Siris clenched her teeth.

"But how?" Xuelan asked. "There's no way you could've seen through our plan."

"I would like to know the answer as well." Karlamaine agreed. "I challenged you to duel, how did you know a trap was lying in wait?"

"Do you have any idea how many fights I've been in?" Shirou asked, rhetorically. "Enough to figure out all the in's and out of fighting in groups, I been in plenty of fights where the guy says "we'll fight one-on-one" but brings his friends for back up right from the start. Even that whole honorable duel thing can't fool me at this point."

Karlamaine clenched her fist and looked down a bit and whispered. "I…I didn't…"

"Shirou-kun has fought in every kind of dishonest fight there is." Kiba said with a smile.

"…Sempai never fights a fair fight." Koneko added.

Shirou's eye twitched, he turned his head to face them. "I can do without your comment!" He tells them annoyed. Shirou then turns back to Karlamaine. "Anyways, I'm also guessing I'm right in saying your words weren't a lie."

Karlamaine then looked at Shirou surprised. "What?"

Shirou smiled and shrugged. "I get it, truth is you really did want a fair fight, one-on-one, no ambushes. But the fact is you're on someone else's payroll, even if you're heart wasn't into it you still did it, because you really believe you're a Knight, and a Knights priority is their King, right?"

Karlamaine was surprised by his words, Kiba who heard Shirou as well smiled because he knew exactly that Shirou was right. Karlamaine then felt her smile return to her and nodded. "You are correct, as a Knight what I truly wanted was a chance to truly duel against warriors from the enemy group. And now even though the sneak attack failed. I'm still satisfied." She then draws her Sword. "Because now, I can fight you with honor!"

Karlamaine then holds her Sword up and aims it at Shirou.

Shirou gets into a fighting stance. "Bring it."

Siris saw what they were doing a groaned. "Would you give it a rest already. Like I said you're a Knight just cause of the piece you were given."

Karlamaine frowned at her comrades words.

Kiba had his usual smile while he had an uncomfortable sweat. "Oh my, it seems I got paired up with the wrong kind of Knight," He then turns to Shirou. "Hey, can we trade? Yours seems better."

Shirou shook his head. "Sorry it's first come first served, you get what ya get."

Siris's eye twitched. "Hey! Screw you!"

Xuelan smiled. "I would praise you for figuring it out, but you are still at a disadvantage." Xuelan pointed out. "Right now in this closed space surrounded by trees, you don't have as much elbow room to fight, and since we're much more used to fight together then you three seem to be, we have the upper-hand."

Shirou snorted. "I'll grant you the second point is true. I have literally never fought with those two before." He pointed at his fellow Peerage members. "So it's true I have no coordination with them." Shirou then turned around. "But as for the first point, I already ran into that same problem a little while ago, and I've already found a way to work around that." Shirou squatted his legs a bit. "Watch this."

Then like a speeding bullet, Shirou leapt from where he was standing and cut through the air at high speed, though was only a few feet off the ground. Both his enemies and his allies were surprised at his sudden jump in speed and more surprised at the fact that he was heading straight for a tree. But instead of hitting the tree like they thought would happen, Shirou's feet landed firmly on the tree for a fraction of a second before leaping once again using the sturdy tree bark as a foothold platform to jump again increasing his speed and leapt in the direction of another tree doing the same thing. Now Shirou was leaping through at fast almost blinding speed leaping from tree to tree, with the rest of the Devils present unable to follow his rapid movements.

What is this?" Karlamaine asked, trying to follow Shirou's movements.

"I-I can't keep up." Siris said frustrated, looking around.

Siris, Karlamaine, and Kiba were all Knights and therefore had faster speed and reaction time than anyone also in this battle, and yet as they were trying to follow Shirou's unorthodox method of movements, even they could barely see him. It wasn't that he was moving too fast for them, it was the fact that they had never seen someone do something like this before, and thus since they didn't know which tree he would jump to after stopping at one they didn't know which direction to focus on. For them, it's like they can see him for a moment but then he disappears and they have to look around in every direction to find him, but the instant they spot him he's gone again.

Though it was better than Koneko and Xuelan who could only see a transparent blur.

Shirou then honed in on his true target and speed blitzed forward in a zigzag criss-cross pattern towards Siris. Siris can vaguely see him heading towards her, but only by reacting on instinct can she move on time. She attempts to slash him in two with her Zweihänder once he's close enough. But thanks to Shirou's great built up speed, her Sword cuts only air, as Shirou zooms past her guard and lands a strong blow with his right arm in her gut, knocking to wind out of her lungs and sending her flying into a tree truck behind her.

Shirou then lands smoothly on the ground where Siris was previously standing, looking satisfied at the result. "Heh, if there's one thing I'm grateful for that first time I fought Freed, it was showing me I needed to learn to fight like that, now closed spaces aren't a problem for me." He said to himself.

The rest of those present, Kiba, Koneko, Xuelan, And Karlamaine were all shocked stun. Unable to believe what they had just witnessed. For the Phenex Knight and Rook, they were shocked that a Pawn and New-born Devil was capable of something like that. While the Gremory Knight and Rook were shocked that their comrade was able to come so far in only ten days of training.

"…Sempai…Strong." Koneko spoke impressed.

"Shirou-kun?" Kiba asked.

Shirou turned to face him. "What?"

"When did you… How strong are you?" Kiba asked, trying to put his thoughts into words.

Shirou narrowed his eyes. "I thought I told you to never doubt me again."

Xuelan was the first one the get out of her funk. "You bastard!"

The was the wrong choice as that made Shirou's attention on her.

Since Shirou decided she would be next he once again started he rapid jumping all around the trees.

"Damn." Xuelan cursed as now she lost Shirou again.

Shirou once again zigzagged forward in a criss-cross pattern towards Xuelan. Xuelan knew from Siris that his attack would be a direct hit from the front so, she lit her leg on fire and curled her leg back ready to kick him away like a batter would try to hit a fastball.

"You're mine!" Xuelan declared.

She kicked out and kicked her leg forward attempting to kick Shirou. Unfortunately for her, Shirou saw her attacking coming and while in the air he kicked his legs downwards planting his feet on the ground thus gradually slowing down and skidding to her, though he comes to a complete, sudden stop right in front Xuelan point blank, the very same moment she kicked leaving her wide open.

She has a panicked look on her face, while Shirou has a ruthless smirked on his face, and Shirou faster then she can stop, comes up and hits her in the chin with a fierce uppercut knocking her away and making Xuelan hit the ground hard.

Shirou then jumps back and stands a few steps in front of a still shocked Kiba and Koneko.

Xuelan thanks to her trait as a Rook got up after a few seconds, and Siris though nowhere near as tough being a Knight also got up looking pissed.

"How the hell are you so fast?!" Siris question, angry.

Shirou snorted amused. "I've got no reason to answer that," He then pointed at her. "But I'll tell you this, you probably chose that huge Sword for its power but as a Speed fighter it's a pretty limited weapon, you can only slash it downwards or to the side, only two choices so it's easy to predict."

Siris gritted her teeth on the fact that Shirou easy saw her weakness. Shirou then pointed to Xuelan. "And you, anyone can tell just by looking at you that you're a martial artist, and from the looks of things you're style is Kung Fu, though your outfit was a dead give away." Shirou was referring to the fact that her outfit was an ancient female's Kung Fu uniform. "Since that means you fight mainly with kicks, I just had to focus on how far you could kick and dodge it, leaving you wide open for my counterattack."

Xuelan narrowed her eyes. "Well, this whole time I thought you were just some idiot brawler, but I never expected you paid attention to such details."

Shirou smirked. "Lady, when it comes to a fight, no one knows more than me."

"…True." Koneko agreed.

"We can second that." Kiba added.

Shirou then paused. "Also, I learned something else, on accident mind you, but…" Shirou then awkwardly pointed to Xuelan. "She's not wearing underwear."

.

.

.

"Eh?" Kiba gasped.

"…What?" Koneko asked with a deadpan tone.

Shirou scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I kind of noticed when I got in close and she kicked upwards. Heh, it was kind of hard to miss."

Xuelan then blushed as her cheeks turned pink. "Hey hold on it's not what your thinking!" She then looked away slightly, with a nervous tone. "I just… I had nothing that would go well with this outfit and apparently, it's easier to both move and fight in without wearing anything beneath." She nervously defended.

Kiba had an awkward smile. "Okay, if that's how it is."

Shirou raised his hand a bit. "Yeah, don't worry, we don't judge."

Koneko just glares at her. "…Pervert."

"Okay nevermind." Shirou then points to Koneko. "She, she judges a lot."

"It's not like that!" Xuelan shouts.

"Ahem." Karlamaine coughed, interrupting their conversation. "If you're all finished, I would like for us to return to fighting."

"Yeah." Siris agreed, impatient. "Let's get back to it already."

Shirou sighed. "Fine, whatever." Shirou started heading back to Karlamaine and walked passed Kiba and Koneko. "Take care of those two."

Shirou then stopped and stood before Karlamaine. "I must admit, that last display was most impressive, as I thought you are a force to be reckoned with." Karlamaine said excitedly as she placed her hand on her Swords hilt. "Now then, let's begin our duel!" She then drew her Sword.

"Actually." Shirou retorted, disinterested. "If it's all the same to you, let's make this quick."

Karlamaine raised a brow, confused. "What? What are you saying?"

"Truth is, I've spent more time here then I thought I would have to, so let's just end this. Use full power from the start, if you do that, you might last longer then one hit."

"Are you insulting me?!"

Shirou shook his head. "Of course not. I'm just being honest, if you don't give it you're all you won't last." Shirou then placed a hand on his hip and closed his eyes. don't get me wrong, you are good. But you're no match for me."

Now Karlamaine really felt insulted, she grits her teeth and glares at Shirou. Karlamaine then sheaths her Sword she takes a short sword from her hip. She then put her sword up and shouts. "I am the Knight of the all-mighty House of Phenex that rules over fire and wind! If what you want is my best shot! Then taste it!"

 _ **THE WHIRLWIND OF FIRE!**_

BUUUUUUURN!

There is a wind of fire around the forest area with Karlamaine and Shirou in the middle of it. The hot winds are burning the atmosphere around them like a miniature inferno roaring around them, shooting flames and embers in every direction. The air becomes greatly heated and hard to breathe, Kiba and Koneko have to lift their arms to take cover from the sudden scorcher that is similar to the one they felt when Raiser first powered up at the club room.

"That Karlamaine. Has she forgotten that her allies are here as well!?" Xuelan commented while using her arm to guard her face.

"Doesn't matter." Siris added, confident. "With this that Pawn's finished, he may be tough, but he can't take a direct hit from that unarmed."

Kiba and Koneko were also using their arms to guard their faces.

"That intensity it too much!" Kiba warned him, concerned. "Shirou-kun! You have to dodge it!"

"…Sempai." Koneko muttered concerned.

Shirou merely stood his ground unfazed by the raging fiery whirlwind only inches away from him.

Karlamaine smirked. "Now do you see it! This is my power the power of the House of Phenex! And faced with it you're the one who is no match!"

"Enough with the hype." Shirou retorted, still sounding bored. "Just hurry it up already, I getting sleepy here."

"Gugh?" Karlamaine's eyes widened, then they narrowed at her foe and then grit her teeth while clenching her grip on her Sword harder, her flames slightly increased in intensity as well. "Very well." Karlamaine ready's her stance and prepares to strike. "This is it! WHATEVER HAPPENS, DON'T BLAME ME! IT'S YOUR OWN FAULT BECAUSE YOU BROUGHT FISTS TO A SWORD FIGHT!" Karlamaine raised her Sword up and brought it down at Shirou's shoulder.

BUUUUUUURN!

BOOOOOOOOM!

There was a great impact once the attack hit, which resulted in a large shock wave and fiery blast concentrated at the spot Shirou was standing on while letting loose a strong flaming heatwave, the blew past the rest of the fights standing on the same battlefield. They all turned their heads, as the strong heat, embers, and winds blew past them. The flaming heatwave continued and started to burn some of the trees around them.

Once it cleared, they all looked towards the spot Shirou and Karlamaine were standing, wanting to see the outcome. The Gremory pieces were afraid to see how much damage Shirou had taken, while the Phenex pieces wondered if Shirou was now beaten, the fact that the referee hadn't announced his retirement suggested that he wasn't, but it should be a matter of time.

However, what they saw shocked all of them to the core.

 **Play OST Dragon Ball Super - Unwinnable Battle**

When the sight became clear, what was standing there was Karlamaine in the position of her Sword as it struck Shirou, but the look on her face showed, fear, pure shock, and utter disbelief, her whole body was shaking. And the reason was because of Shirou who was standing looking almost completely untouched by the ferocious attack. He hadn't moved an inch from where he was standing, and Karlamaine's Sword was in his shoulder, though it barely cut through a millimetre of his skin, looking even smaller than a papercut, and the was only a small droplet of blood coming from the cut.

Shirou let out a sigh and looked disappointed. "Seriously, that was the best you could do?"

Karlamaine was trembling. "Impossible, Impossible, Impossible."

The reason Shirou was able to come out of that attack virtually unscathed was because at the last second, he unleased his magical aura. Just like how Shirou was able to use it defensively like a shield around his body when fighting the Pawns, he did the same thing against Karlamaine's attack. The power of his aura was more potent than the fire surrounding Karlamaine's Sword and thus, when the two meet, Shirou's aura blew away her flames, plus it also lessened the strength behind her Sword swing and blocked it almost completely.

BREAK!

Shirou then shot out his arm like a whip at Karlamaine's Sword and the strength behind his arm was strong enough to completely shatter her Sword into pieces.

"M-My Sword?" Karlamaine spoke looking down at her broken blade, at a loss for words.

 **[BOOST!]**

"Guess this means it's my turn."

At those words Karlamaine looking back up at her opponent. But now feeling even greater fear than before. Shirou's aura was now twice as large and twice as intense, a power he gained from doubling all his states with the Boosted Gear's power. Karlamaine was now trembling, so much so that she couldn't stop her knees from shaking, it was as if Shirou was completely towering over her. Shirou then curled back his fist preparing to end this.

"I told you I'm in a hurry, so I'm ending this quick." Shirou spoke in a low tone with his eyes narrowed. "But whatever happens, don't blame me, it's you're own fault because you brought a toy to a fistfight."

CRACK!

Shirou then shot his fist out, slamming a strong right punch into Karlamaine's chest, completely shattering her metal chest plate into pieces and digging into her body, the Knight coughed out a large sum of blood and was knocked off her feet. She was sent flying back a few feet back and landing on the ground with a thud flat on her back.

"Augh!" Karlamaine let out a groan of pain, she tried lifting her arm in an attempt to get up, but quickly fell and her body was then consumed by a bright glowing light, dissolving her body into sparkling dust, signalling her elimination.

[Lord Raiser. One Knight. Retired]

All those who had just witnessed what had transpired were shocked stiff, honestly unsure how they should even react, the light-hearted atmosphere from before completely forgotten. All they could do was stare at Shirou's back, the back of the form of someone whose power seemed almost boundless to them now. Xuelan and Siris now felt great intimidation from the idea of fighting the outrageously strong foot-soldier that was a few steps away from them, unconscious trembling as well.

 _"He's a-"_ Xuelan though inwardly.

 _"-Monster."_ Siris finished inwardly.

Kiba and Koneko however, had a completely different reaction. For the two of them, they were shocked at what they had just seen, they knew that Shirou was strong, especially after training, but what they didn't know was just how strong. In truth, if either of them had taken that attack, even a Rook like Koneko they would have sustained a large amount of damage. And yet, the fact is that Shirou took that attack without retreating a step and didn't even so much as flinch. And they could think about was that single question.

How strong is Shirou?

The man in question then turned around to face them, making everyone immediately turn their attention to him. Shirou spoke directing his attention to Kiba.

"Kiba, I'm going on ahead with the plan." He informed Kiba. "I'm heading to the new school building to finish off any more enemy pieces before heading to Raiser with the others, I want you two to finish off the two enemies in front of you." Shirou just to Siris and Xuelan. "Meet up with me when you're done. That's an order."

Normally they wouldn't feel like they were under any obligation to follow anyone but Rias' orders, and would be insulted otherwise, right now they felt it was in their best interest not to object. That and a part of them was a little afraid that Shirou might break them in half if they refused.

Shirou didn't wait for a response as he turned around spread his wings and flew off.

 **Music Off**

* * *

Shirou was now inside the school building, though he wasn't in the new school building area as such he couldn't Promote yet. He had just contacted Mika and Akeno, they said that they were also in this building though in a different section and thus he was on his way to meet up with them.

"Thing's are working out well." Shirou said to himself. "But almost too well, I figured Raiser would have some powerful piece somewhere around here."

"Well then, you figured right." A voice spoke.

Shirou turned around to see he was now confronted with Isabela the Rook. Isabela is a woman with short, light brown hair and grey eyes. Her hair has three red highlights across and wears a plain white mask which covers the right side of her face. Her outfit consists of a black jacket and matching jeans. The jacket has wide shoulders and a wide collar and features three leather straps on both her arms. It is also slightly open, revealing her rather-large breasts and cleavage, and it is cut off at her midriff. Her jeans have a section (on her right pant leg) cut off, revealing some of her thighs and rear end, and also features three leather straps on her calves, just below the ankles, and two extra straps on her right pant leg to keep it in place. She also wears black fighting gloves and boots to enhance her blows.

The casual and lighthearted expression Shirou's face vanished. "Well, look who it is. First I Knight and now I get to face a Rook."

The Rook of Raiser Phenex, who was dressed like a cross between a military and a biker leader narrowed her eyes. "I see, so you were the one responsible for that announcement I heard."

Shirou nodded. "That's right, that girl, Karlamaine was is? She had the right spirit, but just couldn't keep up in strength."

Isabela then punched her left fist into her right palm. "You know, for someone so close to their goal, you seem a little bored."

"Well, honestly I am." Shirou admitted. "Considering all the hype this game was getting, I was looking forward to fighting the strong, but so far, as you can see you guys haven't even put a scratch on me."

"I can see that, though if I'm being honest I'm not surprised." Isabela admitted. "Both from the way you carried yourself, before when you clashed with my Master and right now from the way you hold your position, looking causal but actually you're ready to strike at any moment." She examined. "You're subtle about it, but you also don't seem to show any signs of wasted movements."

"Oh? So you can actually notice that? I'm pleasantly surprised but also a little relieved, I was thinking this would be another one of those fights where you would keep underestimating me until I beat you or something."

"It would be remiss of me not to notice a thing like this when it comes to other fighters. I'm something of a battle-maniac among Raiser-sama's Peerage." Isabela then frowns. "A lot of them call my enjoyment of fighting annoying or vulgar. I don't get why though."

Shirou then frowns. "I don't get it either. I mean, Rias and the others usually get on my case about that too and I just don't understand what they're always so upset about. I like fighting the strong, so what?"

"I'm glad to see there are some people who agree that there's nothing wrong with having a good, violent fight." Isabela smiled.

"I agreed." Shirou nodded. "And by the way, how can they call fighting vulgar when they're okay with openly doing M rated things with Raiser in public?"

Isabela nodded. "I will admit, sometimes I have trouble being okay with that."

"Hmph." Shirou smiled. "I guess we can get along."

Isabela smiled. "You think so?"

The two of them were sharing a rather strange and yet interesting moment. One moment, both fighters had been ready to kill one another, and the next they were talking so casually. One would have thought they were old friends rather than enemies on the battlefield. Shirou wondered if this was how Kiba felt when he first meet another Knight, meeting someone who both acted and thought on the same wavelength as you. It was both comforting and a breath of fresh air.

"Yeah, by the way." Shirou looked a little uncomfortable. "Sorry, you know about my Sister groping you."

Isabella blushed a little at being reminded of that time. "I-It's alright if anything I think you for getting her off me."

"Good, glad I got that off my chest."

"Changing the subject, I like your battle uniform." Isabela complimented his combat uniform. "It looks like it's better designed for fighting then mine."

Shirou then sighed. "Since you brought this up, there's something I wanted to tell you, when I first saw you, even though Mika and Raiser were talking about how your outfit only shows off your body, I liked it better than the rest. To me, it was less about showing off your body and more about showing how good you yourself look, and to me, that's way more satisfying."

Now Isabela had a much larger blush on her face and looked a bit nervous. "Ah, I. Thank you for saying so."

At this point the situation changed again, this to silence. Not awkward silence but rather a calming silence where to the two of them were simply enjoying each others company, which a calming and nice feeling the two of them rarely felt.

Unfortunately, the moment was interrupted as both of them felt their communicators being contacted.

"Hang on, I got call." Shirou said.

"Yeah, me too." Isabela replied.

{Shirou, can you hear me?}

"Akeno? Yeah, I hear ya. What's wrong?"

{Me and Mika are heading to our assigned point, like the plan, where are you right now?}

"Yeah um, about that." Shirou responded, uncomfortable. "I might be a little late."

{What? Why? What happened?}

"There's a Rook right in front of me."

{Wait, give me that… Big Bro, it's me.}

"Mika?"

{Yeah, tell me, how sure are you that you can beat that Rook and follow the plan?}

"How confident?" Shirou thought for a moment. "I'm pretty sure I can, in fact, it shouldn't take to long."

{Okay then, take care of that, then head to the room that Raiser is in, we'll be there.}

Shirou nodded. "Got it."

The communication between them ended after that, Shirou looked up and saw that Isabela had also just finished her contact as well.

"You done?"

Isabela nodded. "Yes, it was my Master, he just told that basically I should hurry up and end you."

Shirou shrugged. "I pretty much got the same call."

Isabela then got in her stance. "Then it looks like we're done talking. Let's begin."

Shirou smirked and get into his stance. "Should be fun."

* * *

Mika and Akeno were walking down the hallway heading to their assigned point that they planned. It was quiet, there were no pieces in this area of the building to obscure their path, as such they were able to continue making there way to there destination without worry. Or at least Mika could, Akeno still had some concerns about all this.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to let Shirou face that Rook?" Akeno asked.

"Absolutely." Mika responded, without worry. "Bro-Taker is more than enough to take on one Rook."

"But still." Akeno still wasn't convinced. "Hasn't he already done enough by taking on the Pawns, he should conserve his energy."

Mika laughed a bit. "Oh, Akeno, Poor, naïve Akeno. Why do you think I wasn't worried when he said he was up against a Rook?" Mika didn't wait for an answer. "It's because, he's already surpassed the strength of everyone on this battlefield, from both sides. That was obvious when he took out one of Raiser's Knights a little while ago."

"You believe that Shirou did that?" Akeno asked. "How do you know? Kiba and Koneko were with him, what if they did it?"

"Because it was too fast." Mika answered. "To make it simple, here's the difference in my brothers compared to them. If a Knights speed is 20 then his speed is 30. If a Rooks strength is 35, his strength is 45. And with the Boosted Gear, just one Boost will double those numbers. In other words, one Boosted would be all he needs to one-shot a Knight." Mika explained. "If it was Kiba or Koneko, they would still be fighting right now."

Akeno processed all this information and understood the logic behind it was rock solid. And yet, She still couldn't comprehend how Shirou could be that powerful.

"Trust your strategist, alright." Mika assured her. "There's no doubt he can beat that Rook."

* * *

Back with Shirou and Isabela.

Shirou took a stance like that of a boxer, his legs spread apart, his fists raised. "Should be fun."

Isabela got into her own stance, smiling expectantly. "Don't hold back."

 **Play OST Final Fantasy XIII - 2 Last Hunter - Extended**

And it began with Shirou dashing towards her.

He sped towards Isabela at an impressive speed, delivering three punches at a rapid succession which Isabela dodged, blocked, and dodged respectively.

The Rook brought her leg around, aiming to kick Shirou in the head. Shirou ducked back to avoid it, letting out a breath as Isabela's kick missed by mere centimetres. She continued with several punches of her own, Shirou counted by letting loose punches as well the match hers, Shirou and Isabela engaged in their own "dance". While wild and destructive compared to the art like fighting style that Knights Pride themselves upon, their method of fighting still held a sort of charm to it.

Punch for Punch. Kick for Kick. Shirou and Isabela's attacks seemed to mirror one another every time they had an exchange.

Neither could attack nor defend for very long because it would present too much of an opening. They were trying to slowly wear one another down, but even Isabela was surprised that Shirou was somehow able to take a hit as well as, if not then better than she could despite not being a Rook.

"Well, you really are strong! This even more fun than I was expecting!" Isabela noted with a grunt.

Shirou smirked, seemingly unfazed by the hits from Isabela that got through. "You obviously don't know who you're dealing with." Shirou responded. "I'm not just strong, I someone that came here to win, and I won't accept anything less." He raised his fist. "That's why not matter who I go up against, I just tear my way through them until I reach Raiser, and I've powered up like you wouldn't believe in order to do so." He rushed forward, his head lowered with his arms raised. "You guys can't beat me anymore!"

He continued delivering punches, but something was different about his movements, Isabela could tell. Even his stance was different from the simple brawler style he had been showing seconds ago.

As she evaded or blocked his strikes, Isabela could notice the subtle changes in his attack method. Unlike before where it was basic-level punches and kicks, Shirou was now utilizing the back of his hand as well as the heel of his foot, two types of strikes that generated much greater damage than normal attacks. She didn't quickly understand what was different until she moved in to strike.

Shirou raised his leg to block her punch while also swinging like a kick, this time using his shin and knee to strike her. Isabela let out a groan as the kick knocked all of the wind out of her. When she saw Shirou raise his leg into the air, her instincts started screaming at her to run away.

She hopped back several feet just as Shirou smashed the back of his heel into the floor they were standing on, breaking a crater the size of three soccer balls into the spot where Isabela had been standing on moments before.

"I see it now…" Isabela said, eyes narrowing. "Not just strength and stamina, but you also learned a new fighting style. Muay Thai if I'm not mistaken."

"You are." Shirou denied. "It's true I'm using Muay Thai, but I didn't learn it while training, I didn't have time for that. I've known Muay Thai as well as a lot of other fighting styles for years now, this is just the first time you've seen me use it. Though I admit, it's been I while since I've used martial arts."

"Well then, I admit to being able to change an entire fighting style so masterfully so rapidly is impressive…" Isabela admitted. However, her tone sounded somewhat condescending. "But it means nothing if your opponent can read your moves. I've fought enough martial artists that I know how to detect someone's rhythm."

"Hoh? You assume you can read _my_ movements?" Shirou asked, also somewhat condescending.

"The rhythm that's unique to martial artist, no matter how subtle the movements, no matter what style they use. All but those without a mind possess some sort of rhythm to their technique." Isabela explained. "A sort of flow that they follow in order to use their techniques without rigidity in their moves. For someone like you, it's calm and natural, as if it's as easy as breathing, but I can see it. You strike me using your punches and kicks and lure me closer only to stun me with your kick and try to finish it with the axe kick. It's powerful, but I can still see it."

"Is that so?" Shirou said ambiguously. He smirked. "That fact that you would even assume to be able to see my rhythm is laughable."

While somewhat suspicious as to her opponent's confidence, Isabela still decided to charge, swing her fists rapidly to prevent the boy any chance of blocking or dodging to set up for any of his Muay Thai techniques.

However, she found her strikes easily blocked and deflected by sharp counter punches to her wrists. Even though he had previously been delivering blow after blow, he was suddenly put on the defensive albeit with no real damage. Each and every moment he made looked as though it was devoted too…

"Defence!" Isabela realized, putting distance between the two. "You switched to Karate!"

"That's correct." Shirou smiled, getting back into his stance. "Still think you can see my rhythm?"

"Aren't you full of surprises!" Isabela exclaimed, running up to him and delivering a heavy roundhouse kick to his side. But to her surprise, Shirou simply raised his and took the brunt of the kick with so much as budging an inch, Isabela gasped while Shirou smiled, and hit her with a palm strike which gave her a small nose bleed and flung her body away by the force of the attack. Quickly scrambling back to her feet, Isabela rushed to him again, keeping her eyes incredibly focused on his movements as they started trading blows again. "You seem to know a lot of fighting styles, why is that? And for what reason did you learn so much anyway?"

"Heh, do you have any idea how long I've been fighting?" Shirou said, sidestepping another blow and delivering his own. "In all those countless fights, I've learned that enemies come in all shapes and sizes, so I learned as many different styles as I could so I'd always have something up my sleeve." He narrowed his eyes at the next punch that Isabela threw, using a slap of his hand to knock to blow off-course and Isabela off-balance. "Your mistake was assuming you could read my moves, or even assuming that I would do what you thought I would." Shirou quickly grasped Isabela's wrist with the hand he had struck her with, hooking his other arm around her and grabbing his own. "The thing about me is, I always act beyond everyone's expectations!" He roared, as he used his own arms as a fulcrum, using all his strength to flip Isabela backwards high in the air before hitting the ground head-first.

If she had been any other Evil Piece, Shirou would have thought that the fight was now over with that move.

However, he knew that was too much to expect, especially when Isabela started to get up. She looked a little dizzy but quickly shook it off, placing a hand on her forehead.

When she brought it back down before her eyes, she saw the thick, Crimson liquid that stained them. "You made me bleed again…" Isabela stated, blinking as more blood started to trail down the center of her forehead and around her nose. "You really are making me work for this one, aren't you?"

"Are you disappointed?"

Isabela smirked and clenched her fists. "This is what I was hoping for," She raised her fists. "Let's keep on going!"

"Let's!"

They both charged at one another, moving with far greater morale and excitement than they had individually possessed before. Every time they clashed with what looked like one blow was actually several. The two showed no more restraint as they had been before. Only one of them would be walking out of this fight and they were both determined to make sure that it was him/her respectively.

It was no-holds-barred in a sense. They had both completely abandon defence, anywhere they could get in a punch or kick, they punched and kicked with all their might. Face, Chest, Arms, Legs, Neck, Anywhere.

Neither was certain how long they had been fighting for.

They only knew when the last punch had been thrown.

Knowing they both had an opening, both fighters struck each other with all their might.

Isabela's fist connected with the right side of Shirou's face while Shirou's fist connected with Isabela's abdomen, both fighters' respective attacks knocking the other backwards several feet. Isabela landed face down on the floor, while Shirou scrambled back, still on his feet.

For a few moments, both of them remained motionless, Shirou waiting to see if she'll get up, and Isabela just lying there.

Then Shirou narrowed his eyes, followed by a wheeze from Isabela…

The Rook clawed at the floor beneath her, returning to her feet after a great deal of struggling, now they both stood. Shirou stood there with bruises and marks here and there, but he was still capable of going on fighting, he wasn't even breathing heavily. He still looked as though he had more strength to use. While Isabela was bruised, battered, and bloody, she broke into a fit of coughing, falling to one knee as she spat out a glob of blood, she used her only intact sleeve to wipe the trances of blood that were dripping from the corners of her mouth.

As if testing something, she tranced her fingers down along her chest, wincing as her fingers brushed up against a sensitive spot. It was likely that one or two of her ribs were cracked, if not broken. If they started to constrict her lungs, she would have been in serious danger. Even while in such a state, she put forth her best effort in standing back up, determined not to fall before defeating her enemy.

Even though her defiance meant that the battle would be prolonged. Shirou could not help but feel respect for the opponent in front of him, despite the fact that it was clear she was far too injured to defeat him at this point, her resolve had not wavered even a bit.

"Tell me, do still want to keep this up?" Shirou asked, "At this point, even you can barely stand. Do you still want to keep fighting me?"

Isabela first looked surprised at his question, then smiled and looked a little amused. "Heh, of course, I do. This fight is something I want to enjoy as much as I can, that's why I'll keep on going until I can stand anymore. Not for this game or the engagement, but simply because I desire it!" Isabela spoke completely resolved. "Truth is this the first fistfight I've had for a while, so I can't stop myself from getting excited."

Shirou just looked at her, satisfied with her answer, and sighed. "For what it's worth, I agree with you." Shirou confessed. "For all the time that I've been a Devil, everyone either been fighting me with either magic or magic weapons, so I almost forget the rush of a real one-on-one brawl that I used to enjoy every day. That's why I've also really enjoyed fighting you." Shirou then frowned. "But I don't like one-sided beatdowns lasting longer than they need to, so I ending this."

Shirou then summoned his Red, Dragon scaled gauntlet, Sacred Gear.

 **[BOOST!]**

 **[EXPLOSION]**

Shirou's power and stats all increased to double what they previously were, and thanks to Explosion he can sustain that power for more than one blow.

"Right now my power has doubled, though it last's for just one minute." Shirou explained. "Think you can last?"

Isabela gulped but didn't back down. "Bring it!"

Shirou smiled and raised his fists. "Fine, if that's what you want!"

Faster than Isabela could keep up with Shirou flashed out in a burst of speed and appeared right in front of her, his fist getting ready for a punch, she tried to cross her arms to block the hit, but Shirou's attack came to fast and hit its mark before she could try and defend herself, smashing clean directly into her abdomen.

"Augh!" Isabela winced as she felt the full force of the blow dig into her, it was on a completely different level than anything he hit her with before, she felt as though she had just been punched by something that was the equivalent of getting punched by a freight train, the force of the punch flung her backwards at high speed, and off her feet a far distance, slamming into the wall at the end of the hallway.

Isabela coughed. _"What the hell was that?!"_ She thought inwardly. _"In all the Rating Games I've been in, no ones ever hit me that hard! How'd he get so strong after just one Boost?!"_

Isabela then struggled to get back up, though she succeeded albeit while being unable to stop herself from shaking.

Unfortunately for her, Shirou didn't give her time to catch her breath as he once again rushed at her, this time he was preparing to hit her with a kick, though thanks to pure survival instincts and her adrenaline that was also the only thing keeping her fighting at this point she veered to the side and avoided his attack. Too bad for the Rook, Shirou wasn't finished as he followed up, by pivoting his leg to the and grabbing both of Isabela's shoulders with his arms, then ran forward and rammed her into the wall, with enough brute force to smash through the wall behind her and crash the two of them inside a classroom.

CRASH!

Isabela got up from the rubble and gripped her shoulder, feeling a great amount of pain. "Dammit." She muttered. "One more hit like that and I may not last."

"Really?" Shirou spoke out, which cause her to quickly turn to her right to see Shirou walking up to her. "So I just need to land one more blow to end this? Good to know."

Isabela grit her teeth. "I won't let you!" She punched him with her left arm, aiming at his skull.

But Shirou stood in place, and raised his leg, blocking her fist with his foot.

Isabela gasped, while Shirou smiled and narrowed his eyes. "Legs are much stronger than arms, about three times stronger if I'm not mistaken."

Shirou could see an opening in Isabela because of the position they were in, and using that opportunity. Shirou brought his leg down quickly, this threw Isabela off balance and Shirou made a fist with his right arm, putting all his might in it and punched out. Punching her straight in the gut. Of all the hits Isabela took throughout the course of this fight, she could honestly say, this was the most painful. The strength behind the punch was so powerful it sent her flying back and at breakneck speed, she hit the blackboard at the front of the classroom but didn't stop there, she kept going crashing through the wall, and two more walls after that, before finally stopping when she crashed into a wall back in the hallway.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

 **Music Off**

Isabela was now in a sitting position, with her back lying against the wall. She was beaten, battered, bloody, and bruised all over. Blood was dripping from her mouth, nose and forehead, as well as many other open wounds around her body, as well as being covered with dust and debris. Her attire was messed up as well. Her sleeves were completely torn leaving her arms exposed and so was her left pants leg, making it as cut as she already cut left side. The fabric around her stomach area had a hole in it to which showed a large bruise in the spot that Shirou just punch. And finally, her jacket was torn on the right side of the chest area, leaving her right boob completely exposed and hanging out. Though both fighters didn't seem to care. There was also the fact that her mask broke off revealing the rest of her face.

Isabela laid there seemingly unconscious, though in truth she was awake. "…I've…Lost." She muttered, sounding at peace.

"You're still conscious." Shirou spoke, walking up to her. "You really are tough."

"Maybe, but you're unbelievable." She smiled, with a cough. "Thank you. I'm honored that you were willing to go to these lengths just for me." Isabela sounded satisfied. "I'd be lying if I said this wasn't the greatest thrill I've ever received from a fight since I started serving Lord Raiser."

Shirou nodded. "I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did. Since you were giving it your all, I felt it would only be right if I did the same."

Isabela looked up at him, still smiling but there was a small hint of sadness in her eyes. "You're lying." She accused, weakly. "I know, you can use magic. And not just that, you could have Boosted your power much more than that, yet you only used it once. In the end, it seems I was enough for you to use full power." She faced back down.

Shirou squatted down so he could talk to her face to face, his expression was serious. "You're wrong." Isabela looked at him surprised. "I don't know about "full power" or anything like that, but I was giving it my all. You thought I was holding back because I didn't use magic or my Gear, but you need to understand something. Both those things are weapons." Shirou exclaimed. "I told you I wanted to fight you at my best using only my fists, to me Boosting once was the same as Promoting but doing more would be the same as taking back everything I said before we started. I was giving it my all, that's the truth."

Isabela heard his words and felt the emotion coming from him as he spoke, she could see it in his eyes. He meant every word. After knowing that, the sadness then faded from her eyes. "…I see."

"And if you don't believe me, then we'll fight again."

Isabela's eyes widened. "What?"

Shirou smiled warmly at her. "You heard me, I'll fight you as many times as you want until you're satisfied. But until then…"

Shirou stopped talking and then leaned in closer.

CHU!

Isabela was surprised once again as she didn't know how to react to what was now happening. The fact that Shirou Tsukiharu, her enemy, the Pawn that she was just fighting, had just planted a kiss on her. It was a passionate kiss or anything, it was a gentle quiet kiss on her lips. Completely different from the rough and forceful kind that her master usually gives her, but she didn't mind the difference, in fact if she was being honest with herself, she soon found herself feeling comfort and pleasure from this moment as if everything else just faded from her mind and all she could do was enjoy the feeling of her lips touching the ones of the man standing before her.

After a few moments, the exchange between these two ended as soon Isabela felt her body was then consumed by a bright glowing light, dissolving her body into sparkling dust, signalling her elimination.

[Lord Raiser. One Rook. Retired]

 **[RESET!]**

Shirou then straighten himself back up and dusted off his shirt, he can feel the power from Explosion had finally hit the time limit and now rest, bring his power back to its normal state. He then lets out a satisfied breath. "Well, that went well." Shirou then started walking down the hallway. "That really was fun, especially the end. But I've got to follow the plan, Mika and Akeno should be this way."

Shirou stopped only before taking another step, frozen in place.

A shape that appeared from the corner of his vision.

Outside the window. In the sky.

It was brief, but undeniable.

The shape of the woman with long, purple hair, garbed in long, revealing robes, a stave held tightly in one hand.

"Who is that?" Shirou knew he recognized her, but couldn't quite remember her name, though he immediately knew she was one of Raiser's Servants. Then he finally remembered what her name was. "You! You're one of Raiser's Servants, Yubelluna!"

"Congratulations." Yubelluna announced, almost mockingly. "Not just for defeat Isabela, but also for remembering my name, seems you're not as slow as I thought.

Shirou rolled his eyes. "Well, that make's me happy." He said sarcastically.

However, even from the first floor, Shirou could see the smirk forming on the enemy Queen's face.

"Unfortunately, this is as far as you go." She pointed her stave at him. "Sorry, little Dragon, but your little game ends here!"

Shirou could only barely make out the outline of a giant magic circle that encompassed that section of the building.

Shirou only had a brief second to look shocked.

There was a bright light.

The ground started to move.

There were burning flames and crushing rubble.

And in a brief second everything was gone in a bang.

* * *

Rias felt the explosion in the form of earthly tremors before she saw it.

The massive explosion in the distance.

Holding on to Asia tightly as she floated through the trees, Rias called out over the communication channel. "Status report! What's going on over there, Shirou?! Did you defeat Raiser's Servant?"

{…}

Silence filled the channel.

No response.

Asia looked to Rias with uncertain eyes, but Rias did her best to avoid letting that same worry seep into her heart.

This was SHIROU they were talking about. Whatever it was, there was no doubt he could handle it…

…But just in case.

"Akeno! Mika! Status report! I can't get a hold of Shirou. What's going on over there?"

Again, there was a rush of static as silence filled the air, also filling Rias with a strong sense of dread.

"Akeno! Mika! Do you read me?!" Rias bit her lower lip in both worry and irritation. "Kiba, can you reach them?"

{No, Chief! A little busy!}

Rias could hear the grating sound of metal against metal, Sword against Sword.

"I can't get into contact with any of our comrades by the School buildings." Rias said she took a deep breath before trying again. "Hello? Shirou, Akeno, Mika! Is anyone there? Please respond!"

{Sorry, Chief, we're fine. We're both fine. But Mika's in shock…}

While Akeno's voice was a very welcoming sound, it also sounded dejected, almost completely out of her character.

"It's alright." Rias replied. "Just tell me what's going on over there."

{Chief… It's gone. It's all gone.}

"What?"

{The entire building… Raiser's Queen completely levelled it, with Shirou still inside!}

"What?!" Rias repeated with greater urgency.

* * *

 **A Few Minutes Earlier…**

Akeno and Mika had thankfully cleared the building only seconds before the detonation.

They had been close enough to be knocked flat off their feet by the shockwave, turning in shock as they watched the remnants of the bright flash that reduced the duplicated building to a pile of burning rubble.

"We have to check on Shirou!" Was what Mika had said, pushing Akeno to go survey the situation.

Given the massive power that had been unleashed, Akeno was inclined to agree. The announcement hadn't mention Shirou's retirement. She had to…

-No.

Akeno did not dare to even consider it, the first morbid thought that came to mind.

It was a game attended to by some of the sharpest eyes and most experienced medicals professionals from the Underworld. If Shirou had not been retired, it simply meant he must have survived the explosion. He would be injured, but undoubtedly alive. Given the state he would be in however, Akeno knew it would only be a matter of seconds before they had heard the announcement.

Though she had yet to hear it by the time she and Mika had backtracked to the previous building they had occupied…Or rather, what was left of it.

"Shirou!" Mika panicked, she had ran passed Akeno and rushed to the fallen building as fast as she could. Banishing all other thoughts and priority's, the younger Sister could only focus on proving her fears wrong, Running as fast as she could to get to the rubble in front of her. One she made it, she quickly started digging with her bare hands, covering them in dirt and soot. "Shirou! Come on, talk to me! Tell me where you are!"

She tapped her earbud, perhaps hoping for better reception.

"Shirou? Shirou?! Big Brother, I know you're there! Tell me where you are so I can unbury you! Shirou!"

The panic in the little girls voice…Akeno never expected it to come from her. Compared to every other emotion Akeno had witnessed Mika express, she knew Mika had never even come close to what she presently expressed. Not when it came to her brother. For as long as she's known her, Akeno had never seen her feel concern for Shirou's safety, not from when she had informed the Occult Research Club about Shirou's raid on the Fallen Angels base or when Shirou had picked a fight with either Raiser or his Servants on his own. It appeared as though her entire mental state revolved entirely around her older Brother. Always believing he would come through, and now without him around to focus her, she unravelled light a thread on a spindle.

Mika cut herself on some of the more jagged pieces or rubble, but she ignored the blood that oozed from her hands, focusing on the single-minded goal of finding her brother.

"Why isn't he answering?" Mika paused, raising her head and turning to Akeno. "Akeno, why isn't he answering? He should be answering! Shirou always answers!" She immediately resumed digging. "Big Broooooooo! Come on! This isn't funny anymore! Show yourself!"

It made less and less sense as time went on.

And Akeno's dread only increased.

"Mika, it's just a game." Akeno assured her, though it appeared she was actually trying to reassure herself. "There's no way Shirou isn't fine. You've seen him, How strong he's become since becoming a Devil? Especially in a Rating Game like this, there's no reason to presume that anything's wrong."

"But accidents like that _are_ known to happen from time to time." A voice from the sky taunted. Akeno looked up, glaring at the robed woman with a staff.

Akeno knew who she was. Not personally, but by reputation.

Yubelluna the Bomb Queen, the Queen of Raiser Phenex.

{A-no! -ika! D- y-u re-d me?!}

Akeno turned her attention to her earbud as she heard Rias's voice through the static.

"Chief?"

{Hello? Shirou, Akeno, Mika! Is anyone there? Please respond!}

Akeno took a deep breath before responding. "Sorry, Chief, we're fine. We're both fine. But Mika's in shock…" Or something along those lines.

As Mika's hands became dirtier and more covered in her own blood, the desperation on her face only increased. She was panting heavily, her body unused to such an extended period of physical labor.

"Shirou! I'm going to kick your butt if you don't get out here right now!"

It didn't make sense! The retirement system should have kicked in by now

Unless…

{It's alright, Just tell me what's going on over there.}

Akeno took a deep breath, trying to put her thoughts in order "Chief… It's gone. It's all gone."

{What?}

"The entire building…Raiser's Queen completely levelled it, with Shirou still inside!"

{What?!}

"You heard what I said!" Akeno responded, unintentionally raising her voice. "Mika's searching for Shirou right now, but…"

{Then help her!}

Akeno was taken aback. Even though she had expected for Rias to be worried, right now she sounded almost hysterical. She had never heard Rias sound this panicked before, and she certainly didn't expect it to come from concern for Shirou. At the back of her mind, she couldn't help but wonder what exactly the two of them talked about back at the mountain.

{He's my Servant! It's my responsibility to ensure his safety! I need you to drop everything and help Mika look for him!}

"Chief…"

{And he's important to our plan.}

Rias' last statement sounded more like an embarrassed, hurried afterthought than an actual sentiment.

"I'm a little busy at the moment, Chief." Akeno said seriously, not taking her eyes off her sky-bound foe.

"What's the matter? Afraid to fight with the big girls?" Yubelluna taunted further. "Or are you more concerned that I broke your master's new toy?"

Akeno's eyes twitched, but she said nothing. She refused to let Raiser's Queen get to her. She had a job to do and she would see it through. Mika was indisposed searching for her brother, but this was hardly a threat they could ignore.

"Our group's Pawn is more than durable enough to manage through one of your pathetic explosions, Bomb Queen."

Yubelluna's mouth curved in disgusted. "I always detested that nickname. Though, we can't all be the Priestess of Thunder, can we?" That was when she caught the movement of the little girl beneath her. "Oh dear, are you looking for your comrade?"

Mika didn't respond, panting as she continued digging while breathing heavily. However, this did not deter her. The pain, which had come in a small spell, faded enough for her to return her attention to lifting a particularly large piece of rubble.

"Big Bro, are you under there?!" Tears of frustration and worry paved over the dust that settled on her face. "Shirou! Please! I'll…I'll throw away all my games! I'll stop spending all of our money on manga and snacks! Please, just answer me!"

"So strange that the retirement system has yet to take effect." Yubelluna said coyly. "They surely would have made an announcement by now if he had been taken to the medical area. I wonder what happened." She made a movement with her hand, causing Akeno to take a step back, her own arm outstretched protectively, ready to counter an attack against either her or Mika. Instead however, Yubelluna put her hand on her mouth, pretending to hide a smile. "If you think I'm the sort to miss my target, then you're sorely mistaken. As sure as I live and breath, the Red Dragon Emperor was in that building when I attacked it. There was no escape."

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!" Even standing a small distance away, Mika's screech of fear almost deafened Akeno. The small girl stood from the rubble, shaking in either fear or anger, or maybe both. "Answer me! Where is my Brother? WHERE IS HE?!"

This was not the calm, rational girl Akeno had seen only moments before. Mika was in a frenzy.

Akeno thought it best to hurry before something happened that would further jeopardize their objective.

"Take this!"

 _ **RESOUND THUNDER!**_

Akeno unleashed a huge burst of lightning from her hands, aiming directly at Raiser's Queen.

"Too slow!" As fast as Akeno, Yubelluna erected barriers in front of her to absorb the brunt of the attack, only a brief shockwave was experienced by the purple-haired woman. "If this is the best Lady Rias's Queen can manage, then it's no wonder her Pawn bit the dust so easily." This was followed by malicious laughter.

However, just those words alone sent a shockwave across the battlefield. Not in the air, but in the souls of those who heard her.

Akeno, Mika, and any others who had been listening in on their own communicators.

"Don't tell me it hasn't sunk in yet." Yubelluna teased. "It strikes me as basic common sense. Accidents are always possible, even in Rating Games, I hold one of the greatest powers on the battlefield. Do you think killing a pathetic lizard or two is beyond me simply because of some so-called rules? If he hasn't retired and if he didn't escape the blast, then that only leaves one plausible explanation, doesn't it?"

"Akeno…" Rias's Queen turned to Mika, almost crushing under the weight of the younger girl's pleading gaze. "What is she talking about? Tell me… What is she talking about?!"

"Do I need to spell it out for you?" The glee of Yubelluna's face was absolutely nauseating to Akeno.

"Don't you dare!" Akeno turned back to Mika. "Mika! Don't listen to her! Cover your ears!" The more Akeno thought about it, and the more time that passed, the more clear the truth became…And it wasn't one Akeno believed Mika could handle…

"What are you saying?"

"It's painfully obvious." Yubelluna said. "I killed him. The Red Dragon Emperor is Dead!"

Another silence, even heavier than the last one filled the air.

Until a familiar voice broke the silence.

"Dead? Bitch please."

Everyone listening felt a paralyzing shock come over them as they heard that voice, but none were more shocked than Yubelluna. Especially since she heard the voice speak right behind her.

As she turned around, she saw the one she had just proclaimed to have killed right behind her. There Shirou was hovering in the air right behind her with his Devil wings spread, looking practically untouched. Honestly, he looked more pissed off them hurt and that wasn't good for her.

 **[BOOST!]**

Shirou quick as a flash smashed his right fist into Yubelluna's left cheek as if he was hitting her with a hammer, with the strength he possessed along with his doubled power the attack was so strong it left her stunned and dizzy, that's why she was unable to dodge his second punch, though his boost wore of since he already landed the fist blow he already had the momentum and was taking advantage of it by turning his body around just as fast and smashing his left fist with the Boosted Gear covering it into Yubelluna's right cheek like a side-ways arch. Shirou wasn't finished with his assault rush as he lifted his knee cap and hit Yubelluna hard in the stomach with a strong Muay Thai knee attack as if he was slamming a wrecking ball into her stomach. The force of the attack was so strong it caused Yubelluna to cough out a small glob of blood. To finish this, Shirou brought back his right fist and slammed Yubelluna with one final punch in the center of her body, putting his whole body into the last punch which carried enough force to blow Yubelluna out of the sky and crashing down into the rubble beneath her like a speeding bullet, she crashed into the rubble which caused a large cloud of dust and rubble upon impact.

Shirou then just hovered up there, standing with his arms at his sides, looking as if he was examining his work.

The two occupants on the ground just stared at him not knowing how to react.

Shirou finally spoke.

"Hmph…"One of the greatest powers on the battlefield"? I seriously doubt that."

There was no doubt about his identity.

"Shirou?" Akeno gasped.

Mika was trembling, she looked as if she was about to cry. "…Big…Bro…?"

"Sorry 'bout that." Shirou said, floating down to join them. "I couldn't afford to let her see me."

"Shirou!" Akeno cried out again, her own relief surprising her more than she expected. "You're alive!"

"Well, of course, I'm alive." Shirou said obviously. "I'm right here, soaking up the air, like the rest of you."

"No I mean I-We thought you were dead!"

"No, no, I was just playing dead, Obviously that was my plan after all." Shirou said with a knowing smile while crossing his arms.

"Your plan? You had a building collapse on top of you! You weren't responding!"

"Wrong! It just looked like the building collapsed on top of me." Shirou corrected. "But in truth, I escaped the blast. You see, I know from her huge magic circle she was aiming to destroy the building with me inside. But fortunately for me, I was standing right behind a window, thinking quickly I rushed as fast as I could and made it out, then I used the aftershock of the explosion to blow myself further away while in the air." He explained. "I planned on using this as an opportunity to launch a sneak attack, so I circled around the building while making sure I wasn't seen and hide in the trees behind her. Luckily for me, everyone was focusing on each other so I was unseen the whole time, once I saw the perfect chance, I flew up and rained down my combo attack. My plan was a success."

After explain his plan, Akeno along with everyone listing on the earbuds we're at a stalemate, they couldn't decide if they should be impressed that Shirou was able to plan out and perfectly execute such a cleaver plan on the spot, if they should be relieved that he was alive after all, or upset that he let them believe that he was dead that whole time.

So Akeno decided for them.

Akeno narrowed her eyes at him. "Shirou-kun! How could you!" Akeno spoke in a disapproving tone, scolding him. "Do you have any idea how worried we all were, don't you ever do that again or as your Sempai I will have to punish you." Akeno got up in his face.

Shirou cringed. "Geez, give me a break would ya." Shirou defended. "I told you, it was I plan I made on the spot. Besides it worked, didn't it?"

"That's not the point!" Akeno retorted, still upset with him. "And don't you dare pretend you did nothing wrong!"

"Big Bro…You're alive…"

Mika's quivering voice brought both of their attention to her, Shirou let out a small sigh.

"Yeah, I didn't mean to disappear like that…It's just that, our enemy was a Queen so I had to think outside the box a bit. But believe me, I never wanted you to assume the worst." Shirou assured her. "I just couldn't afford to give myself any yet, getting her to let her guard down was to good a chance to pass up."

"Big Bro…"

It was obvious Mika was crying. Shirou couldn't help but give an expected sigh.

"BIG BROOOOOOOOO!" Mika jumped from where she was standing and glopped him, clinging to him like her like she was afraid he would disappear if she let go, she wrapped her arms around his neck, while burying her face in his abdomen.

"Agh! Geez, Mika." Shirou complained. "Volume."

Mika had tears streaming down her eyes, but none the less looked satisfied and relieved now that she was able to see her Brother alive and well with her own two eyes.

"I thought you were really killed off this time!"

Shirou sighed, smiling softly as he pried his sister off from him. "Mika, you think I'm dead every time I go to the corner store."

"Wait, weren't you the one who was always talking about how amazing Shirou is?" Akeno asked. "Why are you now so worried, compared to then?"

"I change personalities at the drop of a hat, I'm a GLASS BOTTLE!" Mika responded.

Akeno then walked over to the pair. "Regardless though, it is good to see you're alright. Everyone was concerned that you had suffered an unpleasant fate."

"Why would they think that?" Shirou asked, seemingly genuinely confused. "I thought you guys had more faith in me than to think I'd die from a cheery bomb like that."

Akeno give an amused sigh. "Considering there was no response or news after you buried alive beneath Yubelluna's attack, it seemed like a reasonable conclusion."

BOOM!

The three of them immediately stopped talking and turned their attention to the rubble, or rather the explosion that came from beneath it. From the smoke that appeared after the explosion was the Bomb Queen herself, Yubelluna hovered back in the air, her injuries all to clear. Her robe was tattered a bit on the right side of her shoulder, she had specs of dust and debris on her clothes and her, she had small scraps all over her exposed skin, and her left cheek was swollen and bruised red.

Yubeeluna glared daggers at Shirou while gritting her teeth.

She was completely pissed off.

"You… Why aren't you dead!?"

Shirou stared at her with half-lidded eyes. "Huh? Tell me, how long are you and all you other Phenex grunts going to keep underestimating me?" He asked. "I'm more surprised you thought you could kill me, with such a puny bomb."

Yubelluna looked angrier, she then placed a hand on her swollen cheek.

Shirou looked amused. "You're pretty fragile for a Queen, you know."

"What kind of man strikes a woman in the face?"

Shirou smirked. "You're more of a beast than a woman." He taunted. "You're not even wearing underwear."

Mika and Akeno reacted to that statement.

"Eh?" Akeno placed a hand over her mouth. "She's not wearing underwear? Why?"

"Guess she prefers it that way." Mika suggested, with half-lidded eyes.

Yubelluna narrowed her eyes and aimed her staff at Shirou. "Enough of this! This time I'll blow you into pieces!"

CLASH!

 **Play OST Overlord - CD2 23 High Level Magic VS High Level Magic**

Yubelluna brought out a magic circle in front of her ready to cast a spell, while Shirou and Akeno got ready to counter. However, before Yubelluna could finish casting, she quickly stops and was forced to raise a barrier as a magical attack was fired at her. The spell met with explosive ferocity, but the elemental spell of ice, fire, wind, and water pushed passed Yubelluna's barrier, pushing her back and causing minor damage.

Once she straightened herself out, both Yubelluna and Akeno turned to see who cast that spell, both of them were shocked, while Shirou just smiled.

Standing there with her arm outstretched and demonic aura coming from her was none other than Mika Tsukiharu, the one who fired that magic.

"Mika?" Akeno spoke, shocked.

"But how?" Yubelluna said in disbelief.

Mika stayed in that position. "Big Bro." Mika addressed him without looking. "Go on ahead."

Shirou nodded. "Give em hell, Mika." He then flew off, heading to the new school building.

Yubelluna turned her attention back to Shirou who was leaving. "Hey! I never said you could leave!" She prepared to cast another spell.

"SILENCE!" Mika bellowed, turning attention back to her. She was standing but Akeno detected traces of magic around her. It was not standing so much as magical levitating.

Akeno was surprised, she never knew that Mika could even use magic, much less elemental magic to such a degree. "Mika—"

"Akeno." Mika interrupted. "Hang back, I'll take her on myself." She raised her head, her eyes glowing with magical power emanating from her from every direction. "And as for you. I won't allow you to get away with that, no one touches my Brother." A shroud of demonic power her body, only adding to her ominous appearance. "Unless they're prepared to die."

The ground beneath them began to tremble, quaking in a way that usually preceded a violent eruption.

"What the hell is this?" Yubelluna asked herself, unable to believe what she was witnessing. "This magical power is enormous, how could someone like her reach this level?"

The pulsing force of the demonic aura that the girl released at that moment ravaged the air and earth around her, knocking Akeno off-balancing and disrupting her concentration.

Mika then narrowed her eyes and give a smirk that was identical to Shirou's.

"Now I'll show you what real power looks like!"

 **Music Off**

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. And first of all, I wanted to make the Rating Game last only three parts, but unfortunately, this chapter covered a lot and I realized that would no longer be possible, so I had no choice but to split it into four. Moving on, what did you think of the fight?**

 **First for Shirou and Karlamaine, first off, Shirou is someone who improves from every fight and encounter he's in. When he first fought Freed the last arc he was at a disadvantage because they were in a closed space, so he developed a countermeasure for that, that's what he does. Anything that was a weakness for him, he'll find a way around it in a short amount of time, cause he's a fighting genius. Like most fighting anime MC's.**

 **And as for the whole one-shoting Karlamaine, Shirou's power as grown to the point where he's he even then a Rook without Promoting, and if he can double that power with Boosted Gear then it only makes sense, since Knights are Glass-Swords with little defence.**

 **Then with fighting Isabela, since Shirou was a brawler it's obvious that his preferred method of fighting would be hand to hand combat and since this is the first time he was fighting a Rook would do just that, I decided to demonstrate how good at hand to hand combat he was, he's so much more than just a street fight, after all, he's been training for years however he could.**

 **Now It's going to be Mika's turn to demonstrate how strong she is, as you all saw her gift is with magic casting, and her first opponent is going to be an enemy Queen, it'll be an explosive match, no pun intended. Look forward to it.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more then be sure to leave a review if you liked the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	14. Raging Flames and Swallowing Darkness

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. And here this chapter will be part three of this Rating Game, I plan on ending all the remaining fights with this chapter, and start with the main event fight, so things should be wrapping up next chapter. Enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Raging Flames and Swallowing Darkness**

* * *

Shirou Tsukiharu… Was a mystery.

That was something Kiba had come to understand at some point.

He had listened in on the conversation between Mika, Akeno, Shirou himself, and Raiser's Queen, Yubelluna, and the outcome surprised him once again.

In all the chaos, he wondered how much he would've been able to hear, but he heard everything from Shirou, though Akeno didn't seem sure on how she should react. Kiba himself wasn't too sure either if he was honest. Even less sure on how everything was able to play out so well. Of course, his ignorance is natural given he knows practically nothing about said, Silver-haired delinquent.

Shirou was someone who hardly ever spoke about himself, but he was a reliable teammate and a strong comrade, so no one really minded.

And yet, Kiba was now starting to understand just how little they knew about him. Their whole characterization of him seems to based solely seeing him in battle, but besides that, he's more or less a stranger to all of them.

Everything he does just makes it harder and harder to understand.

Even hearing that he was able to think of such a simple yet detailed plan, and then perfectly execute it was something he didn't expect from Their group's Pawn.

At times he's Calm and then Aggressive, Smart yet Simple, Open yet Distant, Caring yet Heartless, Noble yet Cruel, Clever yet Reckless, Inspiring yet Intimidating.

His very existence is a contradiction.

"Where do you think you're looking at, pretty boy! I'm over here!"

However, Kiba quickly dispelled these thoughts as his opponent charged through the brush and swung her Sword with incredible speed that normally would not have been possible with a blade that large. Kiba brought his medieval-themed Sword to counter her strike, sparks were flying out from the point where their blades made contact.

Siris, Raiser's Knight, was disrespectful and just as dishonorable, but her Swordsmanship was no joke.

She would resort to tricks like kneeing Kiba in the groin when they looked blades or kicking up dirt to try and blind him, but her timing was impeccable enough that she chose only the moments when it was most important to act.

"I'll show you what happens when you underestimate the Phenex!" Demonic power gathered around Siris's blade. She started swinging it violently, producing gale-force winds that disrupted Kiba's balance on the ground below them. The trees around them that weren't struck down by random swinging creaked with the threat of being blown over.

She rushed forward in the brief second before the winds weakened, again parrying Kiba's blade, the shockwave produced an even stronger wind.

Kiba wasn't knowledgeable of magic, but he never really utilized it in his fighting style the way Siris did. It was a style based on disruption and the advantage over wind magic provided to her by the traits of her served household only further built upon her style. She would distract Kiba with her magic or tricks and then try and break his guard with the weight of her blade.

However, it wasn't his guard some much as his Sword that broke with her next attack. The top half of the Sword was sent flying through the air before embedding itself into the trunk of a nearby tree while Kiba used the remaining half to deflect the remaining blow before creating some distance between himself and his opponent.

"Awww~ Did I break your tiny little Sword~?"

Though this taunt was meant to demoralize and insult Kiba, he couldn't help but smirk. "No, that's alright. I have more." He closed his eyes, imagining a certain image in his mind's eye. "You're not the only one with a few tricks up you're sleeve."

"What?" Siris was taken aback by Kiba's confidence.

Kiba opened his eyes, a confident smile appearing on his face. "Allow me to show you my own Sacred Gear! Sword Birth!"

A flash of light appeared in Kiba's palm, stretching out into a longer form and taking a distinct shape.

It was an almost normal blade with a black core, a sliver outer edge, and a golden trim. The thing that made it distinct was the end of the blade, which curved into a crescent-moon shaped hook.

Siris gritted her teeth, glaring daggers at her opponent. "Who cares if you can create more Swords! I'll just break them again and agai-"

It was at that point that a small shape collided with Siris's unsuspecting form, knocking both of them to the ground in a dirty pile.

Kiba stared, mildly miffed that he had not been able to continue his verbal and physical duel with the enemy Knight. His eyes widened when he made out the figure that had collided with Siris.

"Koneko!" The Rook of the Gremory family was somewhat injured, her uniform damage in several places, mainly a slashing like tear was over the front-right side of her T-shirt and skirt, exposing a portion of her pink bra and pink panties, but for the most part, she was unharmed.

"I'm fine." The White-haired loli whimpered, pushing herself to her feet. She pulled the fighting gloves on her hands tighter. "I won't lose to her light-weight attacks."

"Grrrrr! What the Hell, Xuelan?!" Siris jumped to her feet, seething as she pointed her Sword at the woman dressed in Chinese style, Raiser's other Rook. "Warn me next time you throw your trash this way!"

"It's not my fault you can't keep your eyes open." The Rook, Xuelan said nonchalantly. "I suggest you keep your guard up next time."

With the announcement of the retirement of the Rook Shirou had been fighting, that left this woman, Xuelan as the only Rook left. The same could be said with Siris. After all, both Kiba and Koneko witnessed Shirou make quick work of the other Knight.

It still was a shock to him though. Shirou's raw magical power and brute strength had come so far, that he was able to brush off her attack like it was nothing. And then he defeated her with the effort it takes to swat a fly. It was a feat that he still couldn't stop thinking about.

With eight Pawns, one Knight and one Rook defeated, that only left Raiser with the two pieces Kiba and Koneko were facing, his Queen, and his two Bishops. Then, of course, there was Raiser himself.

It was hard to tell where they stood. Akeno and Mika were confronting Raiser's Queen, which meant the only fighters currently unengaged were Rias, Raiser, Raiser's two Bishops, and of course Shirou. Both Rias and Shirou were powerful, but it would on depend on whether or not Raiser grouped up with his Servants to try and defeat her.

"The whole point of splitting them up was so we WOULDN'T get in each other's way!" Siris barked, butting heads with her alleged comrade.

"Well maybe if you weren't so slow, you would have dodged in time!" Xuelan barked back. "Then again with the amount of candy you eat, it's a wonder you can move at all!"

"What'd you say?!"

"I said maybe you should cut down on the sweets! It's really easy to see how much of it goes to your fat ass!"

"Oh, that's it! When we're done with the Rating Game, I'm going to knock your head clean off!" Siris threatened.

"Bring it on, Bitch!" Xuelan responded.

For a moment, it seemed like the two enemies would go ahead and finish each other off, saving Kiba and Koneko the trouble. Unfortunately, they seemed to put aside their petty squabble, returning their attention to the enemies they had just been fighting.

For Kiba and Koneko, who had much less experience than those two, and the fact that they spent a lot of their training on learning how to fight together as a team, seeing them squabble like children just felt awkward for them.

"No, please." Kiba said, teasingly. "Continue. I do admit it was an amusing show."

Siris gritted her teeth. "Oh, that is it! You're dead!"

The two Knights vanished in a flash, the only signs of their movements being the rustling of the leaves and the sparks that would appear whenever they would clash, along with their brief appearances.

Koneko meanwhile was busy avoiding the deadly kicks of Raiser's more Technique-oriented Rook.

Kicks coated in flames seemed highly impractical, but in contrast, rather effective. The mastery of wind and flame boosted by the Phenex family was not to be underestimated.

Of course, neither was Koneko Toujou.

As long as she kept her guard up, and dodged when she felt a particular blow would wind or wound her, Koneko found it rather easy to deal with her opponent. Xuelan was skilled, but weak compared to Koneko. In contrast, Koneko was unskilled but much stronger.

Even if Xuelan kept hitting her with her nasty blows with her legs, Koneko could still take more damage than she could dish out. The same could not be said vice-versa.

Koneko side-stepped one kick, grabbing Xuelan by the leg and delivering a powerful punch to the woman's stomach. However, Koneko did not release her grip. She held tightly onto Xuelan's leg before slamming her into the ground, binding Xuelan's leg with her own.

"You…You little pest!" Xuelan growled. She lifted her other leg with the intent to slam it down on Koneko's, intending to break to smaller girl's on legs, but Koneko twisted her around, causing both girls to end up on their other side. Xuelan's leg was kept restrained and twisted by Koneko while the other one was pinned against the ground. "Augh! Let me go! Let me g-Aaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuugggghh!"

Koneko gave another twist for good measure, eliciting another scream of pain from Xuelan.

It wasn't that Koneko was sadistic so much as the fact that she couldn't afford to play around. If obtaining victory meant she had to cause serious pain, then so be it.

"Get-OFF OF ME!" Xuelan bucked violently, kicking out of Koneko's hold before rolling back to her feet. She launched herself at Koneko, spinning around to give her burning kick extra momentum.

Koneko, feeling rather confident, gave a small smirk. "You're not half bad in a fight, but you're also pretty predictable!"

Xuelan's eyes widened. "What?" Koneko leaned back, limboing under the first kick with ease. Deciding to mix things up, Xuelan dropped down to her hands, using them to twist her body at an angle to manoeuvre her legs above Koneko, kicking down (forward technically) on the smaller girl.

Koneko caught the first kick on her guard and was able to back-step on the second one following it. It tore through her clothes like some kind of blade, but it didn't even cut down to her bra (Which was a small relief) but it cut apart the left side of her already tore T-shirt, leaving her the front of her torso completely exposed, save her bra. Xuelan pushed off of the ground, trying to damage Koneko with a powerful drop-kick, but Koneko raised her arms in a solid X-guard, tanking to blow with all her might.

Koneko let out a small groan from strain, but she was still able to shove Xuelan back.

Despite her failure, Xuelan could not help but feel a hint of respect for her Rook opponent. Even a Rook would have trouble getting back up after that one, but Koneko shrugged it off like it was no problem.

"Not bad." She admitted. "Wha?!"

No sooner then Koneko had shrugged off the last attack had she committed herself to a head-on charge, ramming her shoulder into Xuelan's gut, knocking all the wind out from her and knocking her flat on her back.

"Damn it." Xuelan growled. "I let me guard down-HUH!?"

Her suffering was not yet at an end. Amidst Xuelan's daze, Koneko had taken the opportunity to climb up a nearby tree. It was not the deed itself that stunned Raiser's Rook so much as the cat-like ease with which the girl clawed her way up. It was honestly a little adorable in a way.

Unfortunately, Xuelan had been confused enough to enable Koneko to reach a high up branch far above Xuelan's head.

"Masked Wrestlers everywhere would be proud," Koneko said, with her usual monotone.

It hit Xuelan at that moment what the smaller girl was intending to do "You can't be serious!"

But it was too late.

The smaller girl had already leapt from the branch with the grace of a cat but the ferocity of a lion pouncing upon its prey.

Xuelan struggled to get up, still winded from the last strike.

But then a sudden realization had dawned on her. _"That Pawn…"_

Xuelan had remembered that first blow that Shirou had landed on her before the fighting had been, he had aimed a hit on her stomach, and throughout her fight with Koneko, she had been concentrating her attacks specifically at her stomach as well. That's when she realized, Koneko had been using Shirou's attack as a starting point, and her attacks were to keeping piling on the damage like attacking a weak spot until she was at a point where she couldn't get back up.

Like right now.

She was smashed even harder back into the dirt as Koneko landed on her stomach, elbow-first.

If it wasn't the pain or the air Xuelan lost in the brief moments before her black-out, it was probably the several organs Koneko had ruptured with the attack that did her in.

Xuelan let out several pained gasps before her eyes rolled back into her head.

Her body was surrounded by a glowing light, quickly dissipating into nothingness.

[Lord Raiser, One Rook, Retired.]

Koneko spits a bit of blood on the ground, then looked off into the direction Shirou had left in. "Sempai… Thanks."

In Kiba's case, the tables had already begun to turn as well. His opponent just didn't know that.

However, it was easy to discern the way her movements became slower, more caution yet irresponsible. She was far from exhausted, but the swings of her blade, while still very powerful, were not as well-aimed as they were before.

Kiba began parrying or deflecting her strikes with ease, his own blade delivering several decent scratches on the enemy Knight's flesh. Kiba had yet to receive a single serious injury unrelated to Siris's wind magic. That was clearly the skill Siris relied on, making up for any apparent or real Sword skills.

 _"It's like I thought."_ Kiba thought. _"A Sword that large is unsuitable for a Technique-Type like a Knight. She's wearing herself out just by swinging it around. Her movements are wasteful. That's the hint Shirou-kun wanted to show me after he landed that first strike."_

Kiba had realized it. Shirou's demonstration of his speed that he showed them when they first encountered the enemy was just to get one blow in on them. He was trying to give Kiba and Koneko a hint on their opponents fighting styles, by having them watch how they attempted to counter them. It took a bit of fighting but after a while, they had finally realized it and worked to take advantage of it.

Koneko had succeeded and now Kiba was attempting to as well.

Kiba hooked her blade on the end of his own Sword, using his momentum to fling her into the brush. Siris recovered mid-air, landing on a particularly large branch, her Sword clutched in one hand.

Though she boasted and bragged about her power, Siris had clearly stopped taking amusement in their game. "You can buzz around all you want, but you're just some rookie piece of shit who treats battle like some kind of art show! I absolutely hate your types!" If there was one apparent weakness Kiba had noticed in his opponent besides her lack of real talent, it was her temper.

Kiba narrowed his eyes. "Battle isn't an art, but the method with which one carries it out is a representation of their character. You consider yourself to be some kind of loyal servant, but all you are is a dog with no Pride as a Knight."

"Oh, so because I don't dance around like some stupid fairy, you think you're in a position to look down on me?!" Siris growled.

"You misunderstand." Kiba said. "I wouldn't mind it if you were the sort to lay traps or refused to even face me in person. I've accepted not many are the stubborn sort like me who would rather have an honest battle face-to-face. However, you are not a true warrior. You treat battle, not as a contest or sport, but as something to take for granted. You don't care for me, this battle, or even your own Pride. As a Swordsmen myself, someone who has no Pride in how they fight is lower than garbage."

Siris's eyes twitched in irritation. "You know what pretty boy, You're really starting to piss me off!" Siris yelled, gripping her Sword while gathering her magic. "I'll cut you in half, then I'll go catch up to that monster."

Kiba narrowed his eyes. "Monster?" He knew she was referring to Shirou.

Siris smirked. "I admit, I wouldn't want to go up against that monster myself, but watching Lord Raiser burn him to a crisp will be too good to miss!" She taunted.

Kiba now glared at her, while he also gripped his Sword harder.

Siris raised her massive Sword again to unleash another burst of wind. Kiba acted quickly, extending his other hand. _"Got her!"_ Another bright light flashed in Kiba's open hand, revealing a sliver blade that ended in a diamond-shape, two prongs sticking out from either side of the bottom of the ring. "This is one of the many Swords I've learned to create! Replenish Calm!"

A small black dot formed at the center of the ring of Kiba's Replenish Calm, growing to the size of a golf ball and quickly sucking up the wind Siris's magic had produced with the violent fury, like a small black hole.

"Another Sword!" Siris gasped, her eyes going wide. "Another Sacred Gear? Don't tell me you're one of the rare Dual-Wielders?!"

"Wrong!" Kiba corrected her as his Sword continued absorbing her magic. "This is just another facet of my Sacred Gear, which allows me to create almost any Sword from your imagination! You made a mistake in underestimating me!" Kiba leapt from the branch he had stood on at his foe.

Siris, still reeling from the previous use of her magic, was slower in raising her Sword, too slow to keep Kiba's hook-shaped Sword from crashing down on it, pinning it to the tree.

"And this is so you don't forget it!"

"No way!"

Before Siris could counter, Kiba struck her with his Replenish Calm, carving a deep gash through her shoulder all the way down to her stomach.

A scream of agony ripped free of Siris's mouth before she slipped from Kiba's Sword, vainly clutching her wound to stop the bleeding. It was in her pain and her shock that she seemed to forget where she was, tripping and falling of the edge of the large branch she stood on, plummeting to the ground.

A bright aura surrounded her body before it dissolved into sparkling lights.

[Lord Raiser, One Knight, Retired.]

Kiba landed on the ground and looked to where Siris was previously standing, his eyes still narrowed. "That _monster_ is my comrade. Garbage like you has no right to insult him."

After saying his piece, Kiba let out a sigh before dropping into a sitting position. "She's not very talented, but she freakishly strong. It's a wonder why Raiser didn't make her a Rook." Kiba then took a breather. "I still wish I could've fought that other Knight."

"…Hey, Kiba-Sempai!" Kiba looked down to see his White-haired junior, banged up with her clothes torn, but still more than capable of fighting more. "I've finished fighting on my end, too."

Kiba nodded. "Still, I have to admit, we won that fight a lot easier thanks to Shirou-kun." Kiba smiled. "Think we should tell him that."

"…I think he already knows." Koneko guessed.

"True." Kiba nodded. "And with that, Raiser only two Bishops and his Queen left. I think we can take his Sister out of the equation for this battle, however, since she really didn't strike me as much of a fighter, so we really only have three enemies to defeat now."

"…Only three, but two of them are the Strongest yet." Koneko pointed out. "And even though Shirou-Sempai told us to stick to the plan, things aren't going how we were told they would. Chief went to go confront Raiser with Asia-Sempai, but that's about all I know."

"You can't reach Mika?"

Koneko shook her head. "She's not responding, and neither is the Vice-Chief." She frowned, clearly trying to analyse their situation. "We should go help them, but Raiser's Queen is a magic-user."

"That's true. Even if we went to go help, neither of us is very capable at fighting in aerial battles." Kiba added. "At the same time, it's dangerous to just leave them alone. If Raiser's Queen defeats them, we'll end up having to worry about a pincer attack. Not that leaving Chief to fight Raiser alone is a much better situation. If our King is defeat we will lose the game anyway."

"…So what should we do?"

The two servants knew they were wasting time debating it, but both options provided very apparent disadvantages.

Allow their master to face the dangers all on her own and abandon their comrades as possible sacrificial in hope that Mika and Akeno could defeat Yubelluna. If they chose wrong, it would be all over.

A terrible risk.

{Hey, you two hearing this?}

Both Koneko and Kiba perked up at the sound of Shirou's voice in their earbuds.

{I heard the announcement, good you've finished things up over there. Now hurry up, I'm already on my way to Raiser.}

Kiba tried to speak. "Bu—"

{And let me guess, you're worried about the others and think you should go help them, right? Well don't, you'd just get in their way.}

Shirou interrupted him, and bluntly shot down one of their ideas, without any tact. But he wasn't done.

{Besides, they don't need your help.}

That statement somewhat confused them.

{Do you know why I left even though I was with them before? It's because there's no doubt in my mind that they've got this. Mika's a lot stronger than you all seem to think, so just follow the plan. Trust me, it's our best bet.}

And with that, Shirou ended the conversation by cutting off communication.

And all without letting Kiba or Koneko saying a word.

After thinking it over they decided. Right now they didn't have time to debate, however, Shirou had a plan and was going for it which was better than standing here doing nothing. So they decided, despite the risk, it was the only choice they had at the moment, so they put their trust in Shirou.

The two of them handed to the New School building.

* * *

 **Play OST Fairy Tail - Mystogan Theme**

Akeno… Was not sure what she was seeing.

What WAS she seeing?

Of course, obviously the answer to that would be violent magical explosions consisting of lasers, water, ice, fire, lightning, and various other spells that flew through the artificial sky, but the sheer chaos was not what stunned her into a gawking silence. It was natural that she, Rias Gremory's Queen, would be a skilled magic-user capable of fighting on-par with Raiser's Queen.

What she hadn't expected was to have an ally just as capable (If not more-so) of giving Raiser's Queen a run for her money.

"Is that is?" Mika taunted. "I thought Queens were supposed to be, good?"

"You want more? Then take this!" Yubelluna conjured multiple magic circles in the air around her, unleashing a heavy bombardment of magical blasts.

Her opponent, Akeno's teammate, hovering at a position in the sky above Yubelluna, conjuring an equal number of magic circles in the air around her, unleashing an even wider variety of spells that struck Yubelluna's, causing the explosions that Akeno bore witness too. The shockwaves clearly jarred her, but she seemed to recover quickly for someone who was usually so frail.

Her overall appearance was dishevelled and clearly wearing down. Her ribbons accessory and miniature hate were blown off, allowing her hair to hand wildly around her head, and her clothes were singed in several areas, but Mika Tsukiharu was still standing tall and proud…or…flying anyway.

"Let's see if you can keep up with this!" Mika roared, firing out another barrage of spells.

"Mika, pay more attention!" Akeno flew behind Mika, creating a barrier. She winced as several other magical attacks exploded on impact. Akeno herself trembled somewhat from the exertion, but her magic was able to quickly soak up all the damage. "You can't keep behaving so recklessly!"

Mika's response was just to clenched her teeth and did not look at Akeno. "Akeno, don't distract me! I need to concentrate!"

Akeno was still not entirely sure what had happened.

It had begun when Yubelluna had obliterated the school that Mika's older brother, Shirou happened to be passing through. There was no announcement of his retirement, yet no person could survive a violent explosion such as that, not even a Devil. With that thought in mind, Yubelluna taunted the younger girl, tormenting her with her brother's apparent disappearance. But to her and everyone's shock, Shirou had reappeared unscathed and with a counterattack. Shirou then left after being requested by his little sister to continue his advance, while she would stay behind to face the Bomb Queen. To her surprise, Shirou had accepted and departed the scene.

 _(Big Bro. Go on ahead.)_

 _(Give em hell, Mika.)_

Akeno could only guess that Mika desired to finish the enemy before her as retribution for her attempted murder of her brother.

But Akeno never expected Mika had the power to do so.

She began releasing a highly abnormal amount of demonic power…Well abnormal for someone who was so recently reincarnated as a Devil. Mika's use and mastery over many of the elements placed her at what Akeno suspected to be that of a High-Class Magician. She was able to go blow-for-blow with Yubelluna, managing to land just as many attacks on the Queen's body.

Unfortunately, given Yubelluna's defence and strength thanks to her Evil Piece, these attacks did far less damage than they would have to a normal Devil, and Yubelluna met Mika's attacks with just as much force. Only one thing kept Mika Tsukiharu from being utterly obliterated.

"If that isn't enough for a pesky little bitch like you, then how about this?!" Yubelluna raised her staff, conjuring an almost perfect sphere comprised of magic circles, in the process of casting her spell.

Mika Tsukiharu didn't even flinch. "Naïve."

She raised her hand.

The blinding explosion that erupted from Yubelluna's spell was blinding and the shockwave blew Akeno at least twenty feet from where she had been floating moments earlier.

 **Music Off**

"Mika!" Akeno knew what would happen, but the brief thought that something had happened, so soon after Shirou had left to follow up on the plan was enough to send a jolt of terror through Akeno's heart.

"I wonder, is that enough for you?" Yubelluna teased. "Or should I punish you a little more? Considering you will soon belong to Lord Raiser, I suppose I shouldn't mess up that obnoxious face of yours too bad. He does so hate it when people break his things. However, once this battle is over, I will take IMMENSE pleasure in breaking you down, the same will be said for that rotten pathetic—"

"Could. You. Just. Shut. Up?"

A bored voice interrupted her.

Yubelluna's eyes went wide as the smoke cleared, revealing the still-floating shape of Mika. A small part of her clothes was burnt here and there, revealing a small portion of her back skin, upon which Akeno could have sworn she saw unpleasant-looking markings (though these were mostly obscured by the smoke and the distance between her and Mika). Besides that, she appeared not all that much worse for wear, as if the explosion barely even touched her.

Mika was like a tank, able to take on a massive amount of damage, more than the average person, without batting an eye.

That was the trait of the Rook piece Rias had used on her.

At first, Akeno had questioned her friend and her master's sanity, making someone who was so obviously unqualified for battle into one of their most important frontline-fighters, but it was then and there that Akeno saw what she had not before, what Rias had apparently seen before her.

It was because of the Rook's trait that Mika was able to stand on even ground with Akeno when it came to facing Raiser's Queen.

Mika was a Magic-Cannon.

Still, that didn't explain how she was able to tank that explosion so well. Even if she was a Rook, that spell extremely powerful, she should have taken more damage.

"Are you alright?" Akeno asked.

Mika, again didn't so much as glance at her, as if she was far to busy focusing on this fight, to focus on anything else.

"I told you, don't distract me." Mika kept her eyes on Yubelluna while preparing for her next attack.

"But I need to know, how did you survive that last attack?" Akeno questioned. "That was far too powerful for you to just brush off."

"Obviously, it's because the attack didn't it me."

Both Akeno and Yubelluna who could hear their conversation were bemused by that answer, simply because it shouldn't be possible.

"What are you talking about?" Yubelluna asked, not believing her. "My spell completely hit its mark, it couldn't have missed."

"On the contrary, yes it could." Mika argued. "Every magic-user knows this, every magic attack has their own equations, it's like you're imagining them."

Yubelluna frowned. "Of course, that's obvious, but so what?"

"Different types of spells require magic power and using your imagination to execute them, as well as being able to sense the difference." Mika continued. "So in essence, magic is just knowledge to control equations i.e. using your head and making calculations. So while different types may seem similar, they are very different from each other." Mika explained in detail. "However, if you flip that around, it means magic of the same types might seem different but are actually similar. So after seeing your spells enough times, I could say that no matter what you use, there still just explosives. Once I figured out the equations you used, I was able to use my magic to slightly redirect them, making them only gaze me."

The two Queens gasped after listening to Mika's explanation. "Th-That's not possible! to be able to do that would require a large amount of magic power and control, there's no way you could be able to redirect my explosions like that!"

Mika smirked. "I do admit, it was hard. I had to see a tone of your spells first before I could try it, and even then I was only half sure it would work, but my gamble paid off. And as for impossible, the truth is it will only work if I have two things over you." She revealed. "I need to have a higher amount of magic to match the spells density, and it takes a strong mind to pull it off at all." Mika then pointed at Yubelluna. "So in other words, my mind and my magic were stronger than yours."

Yubelluna's eyes widened as if she was told something she couldn't believe even though the evidence was right in front of her. "That's impossible!" She denied, loudly. "There's no way that could be true! you're saying that my mind and magic power are lesser than some worthless wretch like you!"

"Hmph…And why not? Makes perfect sense to me." Mika retorted amused. "Think about the differences between use, when it comes to magic we're not that different. But right now I'm fighting for my Brother and my freedom." Mika then narrowed her eyes at her foe. "But you're just here to please some posh, pampered, bratty, rich boy you call a master and it'll be a cold day in Hell before my mind is weaker than some glorified sex-slave like you." Mika then sighed. "But seriously, this whole constantly being underestimated thing is getting really annoying, is this what Big Bro deals with all the time? 'cause if so, then I'm starting to see why he usually on so stressed."

Yubelluna was now seething with anger, both at Mika's words to her and to Raiser. Not to mention she was enraged by this current situation, she was a famous Queen of an undefeated Peerage, someone like Mika, someone who was practically a new-born Devil, someone who to her was completely beneath her, like a bug.

Akeno was now greatly impressed, Mika's description on magic was correct, but the fact was the action she just took was an extremely difficult one to achieve successfully, to do so would require a level of IQ that was above a genius level, and the strong nerve to be willing to take such a huge risk, one where if you fail it could result in taking damage so great you both retire and take crushing damage without even being able to defend yourself. Not once did she ever think a strategic player like Mika would be willing to that such a risk, nor a novice in battle like Mika would be successful.

In truth though, the feat that Mika pulled off was actually much harder than she was letting on, in truth even though she succeeded in redirecting to course of Yubelluna's attack, both the cost of magic and the mental strain were enormous. Mika was almost certain that it would be impossible to pull it off a second time during the course of this game, but to her, that wasn't necessary. She was already preparing her end game.

One-by-one, more magic circles blinked into existence around her. They numbered in at least fourteen.

With a snap of her fingers, magical beams shot forward, chasing Yubelluna through the air like homing missiles. No matter what sharp turn or movement she made, the beams would instantly turn and follow after her in pursuit. Eventually, Yubelluna extended her hand, using her own magic to cancel out Mika's attack with equally-powerful bomb-type spells.

Not stopping, she continued flying through the air, reaching Mika within seconds with her Knight like speed. Wanting to knock her out of the sky, Yubelluna used the end of her mage staff along with her Rook-like physical strength to try and beat Mika with a strong blow. However, once she thrust her staff as hard as she could, the result wasn't what she had expected. Instead of hitting her, her staff just went right through Mika's body, as if she was a mirage and then she just completely disappeared. Yubelluna didn't understand what had just happened, but she didn't have time to think about it. At that same moment, she caught a bright light in the corner of her eye and turned to her left to see Mika hovering a short distance away, with five magic circle around her all of which had already fired more beams that were already right in front of her.

Without being able to do anything, the magical beams struck Raiser's Queen resulting in a powerful explosion and sending her flying into the earth with a bone-breaking, earth-shattering impact.

Mika who still hovering in the air looked satisfied. "I'm actually surprised that worked." She admitted. "But, I'm not complaining."

"Mika!" Akeno immediately flew over to where she was flying, "Are you alright, what happened back there?"

Mika smiled. "Just a plan I though up of, and it worked perfectly."

Yubelluna then suddenly burst off from the crater in the round that was made after she was hit by that last attack. She was covered in dirt, having some specs of it all her herself, her hair was now a mess, she had a few scraps already her skin while having a small trail of blood leaking from her forehead. Her robe was now in tatters, the was a small scorched hole in her right sleeve, and on her chest area her left breast was now sticking out.

Yubelluna's expression looked calm, but both the Gremory Queen and Rook could tell her eyes were practically burns holes through them with hatred.

"What did you just do back there?" Yubelluna questioned. "My staff just went right through you, why?"

Mika grinned. "It's actually pretty simple, what you hit was an illusion."

Yubelluna's eyes widened. "What? Illusion magic?"

Mika then snorted. "Seriously, the oldest trick in the book and you actually fell for it." She was close to laughing. "I guess we all know Raiser didn't make you his Queen for your brains."

Yubelluna gripped her staff and gritted her teeth. "You little brat." She continued. "But how?"

Mika shrugged. "Very well then, I'll explain it," She then turned to Akeno. "You should pay attention too because I won't be going over it again." Akeno was caught off-guard for a second, but then nodded, Mika then turned back to her foe. "I already knew you'd try something like attacking me directly, as a Queen you have traits that I don't, like speed for example. But, I have traits you don't have, one of them being that I'm smarter than you."

Yubelluna frown while clicking her tongue, while she couldn't deny it, she still hated hearing it.

"And by using that to my advantage, all I had to do was what for you to take the bait." Mika continued. "When I fired my beam spell I made an illusion which switched places with, you were so busy dodging and evading you didn't even notice. Because this fight was so intense you lost focus on your surroundings, that's why my strategy worked."

Yubelluna sneered. "Well, aren't you just full of tricks."

"I know a thing or two."

"But that's all you can do. You're just some weakling who can't do anything but try and struggle with petty parlor tricks." Yubelluna accused mockingly. "You have no real power like me, that's why you have to keep resorting to things like that, after all, you just some pathetic worthless—"

FLASH!

Yubelluna didn't get to finish, as her words were caught off by a sudden spell. Before she could react, a bolt of thunder shot past her, blasting through a small clump of her hair on her side. That immediately shut her up, and she saw Mika who was still in front of her hand left arm up and a small spark coming from her hand, while her eyes were covered by her bangs.

"Blah, blah, blah, the only thing strong about you is your ego." Mika retorted, her eyes shown beneath her bangs revealing a glare. "It's amazing on how you can still keep up that attitude even though you're losing. Parlor tricks? Cowardly? I'd rather be a coward than an idiotic woman who can't do anything beside blowing stuff up."

"What?!" Yubelluna said insulted.

"I said, unlike you, I'm not an idiot." Mika repeated, not seeing any reason she shouldn't. "You're just a one-trick pony, Bomb Queen."

Yubelluna then had a displeased expression on her face. "I've always hated that name because of it's in bad taste."

"Then it's perfect for you." Mika argued. "A tasteless name for a tasteless woman."

And just like that, there conversation was over. Yubelluna raised her staff and unleashed several explosion spells at Mika. Mika met them in kind and unleashed an equal number of spells to match them.

Just as it had been before, the two Magicians restarted their massively-destructive scale clash, tearing the artificial world around them to pieces.

Akeno who was watching, currently feeling like a forgotten background character, couldn't take her eyes of this intense battle.

How this would turn out in the end, Akeno wondered…

* * *

Rias could not shake the ever-increasing tension in the air as she walked down the hall towards the Student Council room.

It was quiet. _Too_ quiet.

Of course, given the fact that it was mostly due to her servants wiped out most of the enemy forces, it should have been natural, but the suspense made it hard to consider it as anything other than a supernatural occurrence.

Rias had encountered one of Raiser's Bishops earlier but had been allowed to pass without conflict. Well, technically the enemy Bishop had just walked passed Rias, but there was a moment where their eyes had made contact. If was hardly that the Miko had missed Rias. More than likely, she had been under orders to let both Rias and Asia pass.

Rias had expected them. He _wanted_ them to came to him.

And so Rias did, followed closely behind by Asia.

They kept walking until they had reached the door to the Student Council room.

Without waiting, Rias blow the door to smithereens with a concentrated magical blast.

The furniture had obviously been rearranged to suit Raiser's tastes, resembling more of a throne room than a meeting room for school governments. Raiser himself sat in an impressive throne in one end of the room, leaning on his arm. He looked almost bored until he laid eyes on Rias. After that point, a spark of life flowed into his expression.

Well, well, well, if it isn't my lovely Rias." He said, standing up from his seat, arms wide as if he was welcoming her. The cocky smirk on his face pissed Rias off. "Raiser does hope you've come here to deliver your surrender in person. Raiser would hate to have either of us dirty our hands with what we both know to be a foregone conclusion."

Rias scoffed, using one of her arms to more securely push Asia safely behind her.

"Hardly. The last I checked Raiser, my adorable servants had thoroughly crushed your forces."

Raiser showed irritation on his face but didn't lash out. "Raiser thinks you are misunderstanding the situation. Whatever advantage or power you believe you have obtained by defeating my own beautiful ladies, you are sorely mistaken." Raiser opened his hand, letting a soccer ball-sized flame flicker to life in his palm. "If Raiser had wished I could have burned your entire team to ashes." He closed his hand, snuffing out the fire. "But where would be the spectacle in that? Our families came to watch a thrilling game between the soon-to-be husband and wife, to see our strength and how we lead our Peerages and, to your credit and no surprise my lovely Rias, you held your own well enough. But the farce ends here." Raiser pointing an accusing finger at Raiser. "You can't defeat Raiser!"

"Wanna bet?" Rias conjured a large, black and red mass of demonic power, carrying it in one hand before launching it at Raiser.

It took out a clean chunk of Raiser's side, but she may as well have scratched him with trimmed fingernails for all the reaction Raiser showed aside from mild pain.

Though the wound was grievous and oozing blood and entrails, Raiser's flesh quickly began to mend itself back together.

"Feisty." Raiser praised with a perverse smile on his face. "Raiser can't say he hates that in a woman. It's part of the reason Raiser finds my adorable Mika so endearing. There's nothing more enticing than a woman who looks down on you." Raiser's perverse smile became even darker. "More-so when you finally make them bow to you, ensnared by pleasure and ecstasy."

A cold wave of disgust rolled down Rias's spine at Raiser. "You're repulsive, Raiser. It's bad enough you entertain these delusions about me, but I will not tolerate your filthy fantasies about my cute servants."

"Don't be so harsh, Rias." Raiser said dismissively. "Once our families merge, all that belongs to you will belong to me and, in a way that includes your servants as well."

Rias grit her teeth. "And if you think Shirou Tsukiharu would ever bow to you, or allow you to anything to his Sister without having your arms violently ripped apart, then you are even more delusional then I had thought."

It was Raiser's turn to scoff. "That inexperienced Dragon brat? Raiser can't even begin to comprehend why you would put your faith in someone like him. He's insolent, vulgar, and doesn't understand his place is beneath Raiser, like all other Low-Class. The only thing Raiser is looking forward to right now is seeing the look of humiliation and despair on that arrogant commoner as his Sister is enlisted in my households service." Raiser chuckled at the increasingly dark look in Rias's eyes. "Oh, come now my dear, you mustn't be so jealous. Even if Raiser plays with other toys, It does not lessen your value as Raiser's wife. Why Raiser imagines you'll get along swimmingly with my cute Mika once Raiser has finished training her."

Rias stared blankly for several moments, more aggressively ushering Asia outside the range of any possible collateral damage.

Rias' dark look slightly cleared up and was replaced by a mocking smile. "Shirou is insolent and vulgar you say? What makes you think you're in a position to say that about anyone, after all, you're the textbook definition of vulgarity." Rias accused which caused Raiser to feel mild irritation. But Rias wasn't done. "And as for his place being beneath you. Well, then it must have really stung for you when you blasted you into the wall like a rag doll the last time you two meet." Rias couldn't wipe the smile off her face when you saw the look on Raiser's face, he was completely livid. "You never answered though, how _did_ it feel to have him look down upon you?"

Raiser dug his fingers so deep into his fist, his grip almost caused his palm to start bleeding, though even if they did his Phenex heritage ability would automatically heal it anyways. All his arrogance was now replaced with hatred at being reminded of his humiliation. "You should be more careful Rias, Raiser is beginning to run out of patience."

"No Raiser." Rias argued, unfazed by his warning. "I'm the one who's run out of patience, with you and all of this. Now, do you hear that, Raiser?"

Now the Pure-Blood frown. "Hear what?"

"That was the snap of the final straw."

Rias extended her hands in front of her.

The last thing Raiser saw before his head was suddenly blown to pieces was the ball of destructive power flying right at him.

Rias glared, ignoring the smoke rising from her fingers as Raiser's head began to quickly regenerate from nothing.

"Go ahead and heal yourself, Raiser. I'll make you die several deaths before you've atoned for your revolting behavior towards my servants!"

Rias began casting another spell.

"Get blown away!"

* * *

It was hard for Akeno to gauge who had the upper hand over the course of this fight between Mika and Yubelluna.

Since they started up their fire-fight, Yubelluna had started becoming more proactive in battle. She did not wait for Mika to attempt to attack. The moment Yubelluna spotted an opening, she took advantage of it.

And Mika and stopped remaining in one spot while firing spells, and instead was continuously moving around while seeming more focused than before. Apparently whatever Mika had to concentrate on was preventing her from moving before. But now that longer appeared to be the case.

Their battle was now even more intense than the one they were having before. Perhaps it was because Yubelluna had to expend more effort for a moving target.

Even then, there was a large gap in their experience and the fact that after this long both their magic should be starting to wane by now. Mika still seemed to be able to carry on very well in his battle. A fact that still impressed Akeno.

It wasn't nearly as slowed-paced as it was previously.

They went back and forth, time and time again before Mika was once again able to down Raiser's Queen.

Mika was breathing heavier than she was before. Though Yubelluna was much worse of, while she still had the strength to keep fighting, her magic power was basically at its last drop at this point, it was all she could to stay in the air.

"Unbelievable." She commented. "I didn't even expect the Priestess of Thunder to push me this far, to think you of all people would."

Mika crossed her arms and smirked. "Heh, you better believe it. Now then, I think it's time we settle this."

Yubelluna had a dark look in her eyes coupled with a malevolent smile as if she knew something they didn't know. "That might be the one thing we agree on." She then reached one of her hands into immodest bosom like she was planning to take something out. "Time for my trap."

After a second though, her eyes blinked a few times, before they widened with confusion, something was wrong. Whatever she was looking for, it obviously wasn't there. Mika noticed her look and had the expression of some who just pulled off a Checkmate.

"What's wrong?" Mika called out getting her attention. "Have you lost something?" She then gave her a grin that was oozing smugness. "Maybe a Phoenix Tear?"

Yubelluna gasped. "What? How do you—"

"How do I know about Phoenix Tears?" Mika finished her sentence. "It wasn't really that hard honestly."

"Mika, what are you both talking about?" Akeno asked, feeling out of the loop. "What are Phoenix Tears?"

"It's actually really interesting, you see the House of Phenex has a very special magical item called Phoenix Tears." Mika elaborated. "As the name suggests, they have to ability to use the House of Phenex's instant healing ability on whoever it's used on. Think of it as an instantaneous version of Asia's healing only on a higher level/" She then looked back to Yubelluna. "And as for how I know about them, surely you haven't forgotten, the Rating Games are a public sport and you can watch them freely, including the ten matches your team has been in. While making our strategy these past ten days, I watched them all. You really thought I wouldn't notice some of you using them once in a while?"

Yubelluna gritted her teeth, realizing she had been played.

"Though it wasn't just your team." Mika continued. "After becoming curious I decided to check out some other Rating Games from the Pro Circuit. Among a lot of new and useful information for future reference, I learned that a lot of teams use Phoenix Tears, Raiser's family became rich from sealing them because they're the only ones who can make them." She then smiled while placing a hand on her hip. "Even if I hadn't seen your past matches, it would have been obvious you had one, after learning that."

Akeno inwardly agreed, if Phoenix Tears were such a useful game-changer and Raiser's family made them, then anybody could guess he had some for his Peerage.

"After that, all I had to do was figure out who had one and I knew the obvious choice would be the Queen." Mika continued. "Since there's no rule against stealing them, the plan was to take it from you."

"Wait, that still doesn't add up!" Yubelluna argued. "Even if you knew all that, how could you have stolen it? You weren't anywhere near me!"

Akeno and Yubelluna then waited to hear Mika's response, but after several moments of silence to there surprise Mika just started laughing amused.

"What's so funny?" Yubelluna asked, frowning.

"Haha, oh my, it seems you're misunderstanding something." Mika said through her laughter. "When did I ever say _I_ was the one who stole it?"

"What are you saying?"

"The one who stole it was the first and only one among us that directly landed a blow on you."

Yubelluna processed those words for a moment, but then her eyes widened. She remembered.

* * *

 **Flashback…**

 _ **[BOOST!]**_

 _Shirou quick as a flash smashed his right fist into Yubelluna's left cheek as if he was hitting her with a hammer, with the strength he possessed along with his doubled power the attack was so strong it left her stunned and dizzy, that's why she was unable to dodge his second punch, though his boost wore of since he already landed the fist blow he already had the momentum and was taking advantage of it by turning his body around just as fast and smashing his left fist with the Boosted Gear covering it into Yubelluna's right cheek like a side-ways wasn't finished with his assault rush as he lifted his knee cap and hit Yubelluna hard in the stomach with a strong Muay Thai knee attack as if he was slamming a wrecking ball into her stomach. The force of the attack was so strong it caused Yubelluna to cough out a small glob of blood._

 _However once Shirou was a point-blank distance from her, he quickly began his real objective._

 _Quickly before Yubelluna could even notice, Shirou's hand flashed out and reach into her cleavage. Then just as fast reached out hold a small yet decretive looking vial._

 _He then hurried and hid it inside his glove before anyone saw._

* * *

Yubelluna was now shaking with anger, realizing she had been played for a fool by Shirou. "That bastard."

Mika smirked. "Looks like you finally figured it out."

"But wait." Akeno chinned in. "How did Shirou-kun know it would be there specifically?"

Mika shrugged. "Actually, that was my question too." She then grinned. "But he said."

 _(I know because I meet them, it couldn't be more obvious.)_

"And he was right. Looks like being a sexually deviant came back to bite you."

Yubelluna sneered, with a displeased expression. "Disgusting, that wretched Lowborn actually touched me."

Mika scoffed. "Oh don't even try and highroad anyone, this coming from a woman who let herself be French kissed and fondled in front of an audience." Mika ridiculed. "I'm pretty sure Big Bro wanted to wash his hands after touching you."

"ENOUGH!" Yubelluna yelled. "I will not let myself be insulted by scum like you any longer!" She raised her staff. "I may not have my Phoenix Tear! but I can still destroy you!"

"Actually you can't, you see I was waiting for this moment." Mika said, in a low tone.

Yubelluna raised a brow. "What?"

"From the start, I was planning on doing this, but it was harder than I thought so I needed to concentrate for a while, that's why I couldn't move." Mika was referring to the beginning of their battle. "But after that was done all I need was to wait for the right time. My signal would be when you go for your Phoenix Tear, now I know I can end this."

Now it was Yubelluna's turn to scoff. "What on earth are you talking about? What could you possibly do this late in the game?"

"This!" Mika then held out her arms wide to her sides.

 **Play OST Fairy Tail - Dark Mage**

Suddenly in front of Mika appeared two pitch-black magic circles on her arms and her body was wrapped in a blackish-purple magical aura that was wrapping itself thickly around her body. Both the Queens present knew exactly what this meant.

"Black Magic?" Akeno spoke in disbelief.

Among all the different types of magics that are usable to Devils and Magicians, there are some that are much more advanced than others. One of them being Black Magic. Black Magic is a type of magic that is extremely powerful but also difficult to learn and use successfully, it is one of the most Higher-Levelled forms of magic that very few have been able to completely master, and the ones that do master it are those whose level surpasses that of a High-Class Magician, and who are very few in number. It's the Ultimate form of Demonic magic that can be learned.

Hence why Akeno and Yubelluna were shocked.

Though Yubelluna soon gained a confident expression. "Heh, oh please, that was your final trump card?" She taunted. "I'll admit, it is amazing that you can use Black Magic, but with how long the preparation time takes to active a spell, I'll be able to blast you into oblivion before you can even finish."

"No." Mika denied. "Actually, preparations are already finished."

Yubelluna's eyes widened and she looked down to see, on the ground directly beneath her there was a black magic circle that was glowing, ready to activate. "But how?! When?!"

"This whole fight." Mika responded. "From the start, I was using my mind to create the magic circle for this spell, but it took a lot of concentration so I couldn't move around, and it took a lot of time because I couldn't use my hands." She explained. "Once I was finished, I just had to damage you to a point where you would feel you'd need a Phoenix Tear, that's when I was sure this would end this."

Yubelluna now started to sweat, she knew there was no way she could survive a spell of that magnitude, but she had no way to escape. "This can't be!"

"Your mistake was underestimating me!" Mika shouted, she then brought her arms up and then extended them forward, right in front of her, with her arms crossed between each other and her hands opened with her palms facing forward.

 ** _LET THERE BE DARK!_**

The spell had activated. It was a spell that shook the world.

On the ground outside the artificial replica school, a massive magic circle fired off a Pitch Black beam pillar rising horizontally into the sky.

It was a great and massive beam, three times the size of the magic circle, shot up into the sky like a Demon Lord unleashing his wrath towards God.

A devastating blast that tore the earth asunder, completely consuming the foe of the one who had cast the spell.

It blacked the artificial sky.

Observers, spectators, and even those on the battlefield who saw the attack gawked, honestly not even sure on how they should react.

The thing that broke the silence was the announcement that soon followed.

[Lord Raiser, One Queen, Retired.]

 **Music Off**

Akeno who had just witnessed what had transpired was among those who was gawked.

 _"I can't believe how far Mika's come in such a short amount of time,"_ Akeno thought inwardly. _"Black Magic is something even I can't do. There's no doubt, Mika's a stronger Magic-user than me, or maybe even Rias. But with her and with how fast Shirou's growth rate is, it shouldn't be possible. The Tsukiharu siblings, who are they. There's no way they could have been just ordinary human before becoming Devils."_

At the time, Akeno didn't realize how right she was.

However, she was quickly brought out of her thoughts when she saw the girl in question was suddenly falling from the sky.

"Mika!" Akeno called out worried as she quickly flew over to catch her.

After Mika was half to the ground, Akeno caught her and held her close examining her for injuries.

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness you're okay."

Mika looked at her, feeling extreme-fatigued after the battle she had just won. "Yeah, thanks for the save."

Akeno nodded accepting her gratitude, then looked at her seriously. "Mika, where did you learn all those spells?"

Mika sighed. "I figured you would ask me that." She muttered. "I learned them from reading."

Akeno blinked. "What?"

"It took me a little while to fully understand the Devils writing language, but after playing so many games that weren't translated and learning different languages to fix that problem, learning new languages became a regular thing for me."

Akeno sighed. "Of course it did."

"Anyways," Mika continued. "After I got that done I had Rias give a bunch of different books on learning all kinds of spells. I was immediately hooked, I wanted to learn as much as I could and eventually, I also picked up Black Magic." She explained. "Though I admit I still haven't completely gotten down much of it, besides that one spell, not to mention it leaves me drained afterwards."

Akeno processed all this information. "But, how could you have learned so much in just ten days?"

"Ten days?" Mika repeated. "Akeno, I didn't start doing this during our training, I've started learning all this magic a few days after becoming a Devil."

That new revelation surprised Akeno. "You've devoted that much time to honing your magic?"

Mika raised a brow. "Yeah, what did you think I spent all that time doing nothing?"

Akeno opened her mouth to respond but Mika stopped her.

"You know what, don't answer that." Mika then breathed in and then out. "Still though, that was closer than I hoped," She said displeased. "If things were any closer, I might have lost."

"That's another thing, why did you fight her alone?" Akeno questioned, wanting to ask that from the beginning. "There was no reason to exert yourself that much if we fought her together, we could have easily beaten her."

Mika didn't answer at first, but she looked down while still in Akeno embrace, her expression seemed a bit sad. "I don't know. I just…I felt like, I had to beat her on my own. This is the first fight I've ever been in and I don't mean as in a Rating Game or as a Devil. This is literally the first fight of my life, I just felt like if I didn't win this on my own, I wouldn't be able to move forward with myself and I wouldn't get a second chance." She then had a small smile. "Besides, like my Brother, I hate losing."

Akeno listened to her and then give her a warm smile. On some levels she could understand where Mika was coming from, she had been helpless her whole life, to her this fight was her way of proving to herself that she had finally become more than who she once was. "I understand."

Mika then looked her in the eye. "Akeno… Take me to him."

Akeno looked a little confused. "What?"

"Take me to where my Brother is."

Akeno's eyes widened. "What? Mika, Shirou-kun's on his way to fight Raiser, he might even already be there by now."

"I know that." She responded, not wavering. "That's why I want to go, now that the fights over, I want to be beside him, no matter what else happens."

"But look at the state you're in." Akeno still wanted to talk her out of it. "You can barely walk on your own at this point, even if you go there's nothing you can do at this point." She pointed out. "You've done enough, let me heal you."

While her healing was nowhere near as good as Asia's, it would still help improve Mika's current state.

"Then heal me on the way." Mika retorted. "I know alright, I already know I can't doing anything if I go there… But." She bit her lip. "But he's going to fight Raiser now, and that's the most important fight in this game. Both my fate and Rias' depend on the outcome, so don't I deserve to see it!" Mika asked as if daring her to say otherwise. "Take me there… Please."

Akeno saw the pleading look in her eyes, she knew even if she said no, Mika would just attempt to go there on her own. Thus she gave in.

"Okay, I'll take you to him."

"Thank you." Mika said, genuinely.

And with that, Akeno gently landed back on the ground and started walking to the inside of the building.

Towards the Student Council room.

To the place where everything would be decided.

* * *

 **A Few Minutes Earlier…**

Shirou was walking down the hallway of the new school building, heading to Raiser's base.

It was a while since he parted ways with Mika and Akeno, allowing them to fight Raiser's Queen.

If they were someone else he might have felt concerned, but Shirou knew Mika could get the job done. Well either her or Akeno.

"Well, what a surprise to see you here." A High-Class, almost self-centred, young girls voice spoke.

Shirou noticed Raiser's sister had appeared at his side, though he didn't stop walking.

Noticing this, Ravel Phenex started walking to keep up with him. She had been sitting around some dusty old building for close to an hour now. She deserved whatever form of passing the time she could get at this point, and even if they were an enemy, she had no intention to fight so what else could she do. After all, her Brother wouldn't actually let her stand and watch the battle, claiming it was "Too dangerous". The same thing he did every single time she tried watching his fights in person…

"I really don't get why you bother fighting." Ravel started with a taunt. "My Brother is undoubtedly already claiming victory over Lady Rias, and when that happens nothing you do will matter in the slightest."

Shirou kept walking. "Even if you say that neither you nor I have heard anyone announcement saying so yet." He pointed out. "So she hasn't lost yet, why would I stop now when there's still a chance to win this?"

His defiance only succeeded in surprising and irritating the younger girl.

"You know he's immortal, right?" Ravel asked. The more closely she walked alongside him, the more she noticed the strange lack of any real injury, which should be impossible considering he personally fought almost a dozen of their forces. "You're just going to get crushed like everyone else who tried in vain to defeat my Brother! You may as well give up, your odds of victory are less than 10%"

"So what?" Shirou replied, that response stopped her taunting and made her stare. "It's not Zero so it's plenty." He said confidently. "Besides I did not fight my way here for nothing, regardless of what happens, I'm ending this on my own terms."

"Are you serious? Lady Rias and the rest of you're team are probably already at their limits." Ravel pointed. "What makes you think you can face my Brother by yourself, why would you even risk? I know it's not for your master. So then what could possibly be the reason you would put so much on the line to still fight?"

Shirou didn't stop walking. "What reason? Have you not been paying attention?" He asked, not caring about the offence she took. "I fight for the sake of someone who means more to me than living, her fate's on the line to, so I'll win. Why is that so hard for you to understand?"

Ravel stepped back a bit, she honestly didn't have a retorted to that, she remembered how protective he seemed of his Sister back at the clubroom. It would only make sense he would throw himself into an uphill battle for her sake. Even though Ravel didn't often so it, she cares deeply for her Brother as well so she knows why there's nothing more to say.

She quickly caught up and changed the subject. "Even so, despite what power you may have, the House of Phenex is a powerful force in the Rating Game and not just because of our immortality." She gloated.

Shirou nodded. "I heard, like how you've got those "Phoenix Tear" things."

Ravel smiled and reached into her pocket to take out a small vial, which was her Phoenix Tear. "That's correct. This is our families treasure. Phoenix Tear. I'm surprised you've heard of it. With this, our tears can heal all types of injuries." She explained. "Your group also has a person who possesses the Twilight Healing, correct? This is like an instantaneous version of that, but much more potent. And it's even in the rule book that Only two Devils participating in the Rating Game can use it. It was restricted because it was too powerful. Well, that would be natural. In our case, our Queen and myself were in possession of it. Also, our tears are sold for high prices. Thanks to that, the House of Phenex is very wealthy. Only good things happened since the game was created. Immortality and tears, this certainly is our age." She finished with a snooty laugh, with her open hand other her mouth and her eyes closed.

"Yeah, I can see that." Shirou said, now hold the vial himself. "These things are so useful, you could make a killer profit selling these."

Ravel continued her attitude. "Yes, I know. Truly just one of the many benefits of being of the House of Phenex." Ravel then stopped and noticed her hand felt oddly light. She opened her eyes to see the vial containing the Phoenix Tear was no longer in her hand, but rather in the hand on the enemy Devil walking beside her.

"Hey!"

"Huh? You just now noticed?" Shirou asked deadpan. "Guess being egocentric also runs in the family."

"Give that back!" Ravel demanded.

"Yeah right." Shirou replied amused. "Just try and take it."

Ravel clicked her tongue, knowing even if she tried to take it back, she possessed no fighting ability whatsoever, so it would be impossible. "This why I can't stand Low-Class Devils, they always act in such a distasteful manner."

Shirou snorted. "Don't even try it, it's your own fault for just showing it off like that." He pointed out. "Besides, like you said these things are way too use, now I have both."

Ravel puffed her cheeks and was upset, oddly enough she somewhat resembled Asia when she was upset with something Shirou had done. Though after a moment she blinked in confusion, noticing something odd about the last thing Shirou had said.

"Both?"

Shirou nodded with a smile. "Yep, see it and believe." He then took out the second Phoenix Tear, the same one he took from Yubelluna.

Ravel's eyes widened. "That's! Yubelluna's?"

"The very same."

"But how?" Ravel asked. "You couldn't have defeated her, there was no announcement and there's no way she would have let you just take it and run."

"What? Who do you think I am?" Shirou asked, almost offended. "I didn't run from that Queen Bitch, rather I took this after landing the first blow, though I left fighting her to Mika."

Ravel's eyes widened again, this time with confusion. "You what? You left your Sister to fight her, that's insane, I thought you wanted to protect her?"

"Don't get the wrong idea." Shirou told her. "I do want to protect her, but I also know what she's capable of and I understand that there are times I need to believe in those capabilities."

Ravel blinked. "What she's capable of?"

"I know she can handle that fight. Aside from me, I'd say she's the Strongest member our team's got." Shirou said, without a shred of doubt.

Ravel, however, looked like she completely doubted it. "That's not possible."

[Lord Raiser, One Queen, Retired.]

After hearing the announcement from Grayfia, Shirou smiled knowing that his trust and belief in his sister was right. While Ravel just looked at a loss for words, wondering if maybe she heard wrong.

"What was that about impossible?"

"This…This can't be…" Ravel had trouble finding the right words.

"Well then," Shirou stopped walking, arriving at the stairs. "I guess this is where our conversation ends."

"What?"

"The Student Council room is just a straight turn above these stairs, you're not a fighter so it's a given you won't be going." Shirou explained. "As for me, I going to finish this game already."

He started claiming the stairs.

"H-Hold on!" Ravel called out. "Don't you understand what I'm saying to you!? You are going to lose anyway so it's safer to stay here with me!?" Ravel then immediately covered her mouth in embarrassment.

It wasn't like she desired the Silver-haired Red Dragon Emperor's company in particular, but it was hard to deny the fact that she was becoming increasingly bored just sitting around while everyone else went out and did things. She obviously wouldn't admit to either, but still…

"As nice as that option sounds." Shirou said while making his way upstairs. "I'll decline. After coming this far, turning back now would mean everything up until was meaningless, and besides…"

Shirou stopped at the top of the stairs and turned around to face Ravel.

He had his usual fearless smirk on his face, while his eyes were covered by his bangs.

"Let me tell you one thing. It doesn't matter who they are, I don't lose." He said to her, then Shirou slightly lifted his head and his eyes could be seen. "I'm the best."

Once he finished saying that, he left to head for the Student Council room.

Ravel was still at the bottom of the stairs, but she felt a strange feeling come other her. After Shirou had said those words and the feeling of the weight behind them that she felt, an usual and unfamiliar sensation was starting to affect her. She felt the same way for some reason the last time she saw him at the ORC meeting room before. And just like then, without either of them noticing, there was a small pink blush on her cheeks.

Ravel could only look on in a mix of awe and disbelief…

* * *

Rias knelt on the ground, panting from exhaustion, infuriated by her weakness.

"Chief!" Asia, as before, had been healing Rias' wounds.

Raiser stood across from her, looking down upon her condescendingly. "Really, my dear Rias, after coming so far Raiser admits even Raiser is a little crushed to see you reduced to this state. You've defeated Raiser's Pawns, Rooks, Knights, and even Queen. That's a feat none of Raiser's opponents thus far have been able to honestly claim. Regardless of the outcome, you've earned Raiser's deepest respect."

Rias glared mercilessly at Raiser, causing a victorious smirk to appear on his face.

"But this game is already over. Your pieces are no match for Raiser and regardless of how many times you attempt to attack Raiser, it will always amount to nothing."

He was referring to the fact that Kiba and Koneko had arrived and attempted to assist Rias a short while ago, but they were powerless before Raiser and were quickly defeated. They now lay there, in the Student Council room at the side of the room. They were a painful sight to see, Kiba was face down with two broken blades at his side, his sleeves were burnt off and his arms were burnt, while both his legs were broken in an unpleasant angle. Koneko was down next to him, her clothes were almost completely burned away, all that remind was her pink bra and panties, and her gloves, though her student uniform along with her shoes were nothing but ash. Her appearance was pathetic as she curled up in a fetal position due to the pain she was in.

Severe burns covered much of Kiba's body while cuts and bruises littered Koneko's.

It took everything they had not to pass out and let themselves retire from the game. All they could do was watch helplessly as the situation worsened.

Asia wanted to go over and heal them, but Rias begrudgingly ordered her not to leave her side, knowing that the moment she did, Raiser would eliminate her next.

So instead, Rias' response to Raiser was to fling another blast of demonic power at Raiser's smug face, erasing the top half of it.

"Oh, don't be so precocious now." Raiser said. "Could it be you're furious because of what Raiser did to your two pieces of there? Raiser gave them fair warning what it meant to oppose the Phenex. They really only have themselves to blame." His smile became even crueller. "Or could it be that you're still waiting on that mongrel you call your "Pawn"?"

Rias' glare intensified, Asia was upset as well with Raiser's insistence in his continuous insults towards Shirou. Kiba and Koneko despite there injuries heard him too, and grit their teeth in frustration. Regardless on what others might think, Shirou was the main reason the two of them were even able to reach Rias, they couldn't contain the anger they felt towards Raiser for talking shit about him after that.

The next thing they knew, Rias held out both of her hands, unleashing an even larger blast of demonic power that blew away the entire upper-half of Raiser's body along with several walls behind him, clean through the rest of the building.

"Don't you dare call my servant a mongrel!"

"Touchy." Raiser quipped dismissively. "Beloved, if you insist upon clinging to broken things, it will make it a great deal harder to plan out our wedding."

"I've said it once, and I'll say it again." Rias said bitterly. "I have no intention of losing to you, and I certainly will not marry you."

"It's time you stopped living in a fantasy, Rias." Raiser taunted. "It doesn't matter if you've defeated most of my servants. Raiser could easily wipe out your entire team single-handedly. Raiser sent his girls to fight only because it makes for a more entertaining show, but Raiser is beginning to grow bored with this petty resistance of yours." Raiser conjured a fireball twice the size of his own body. Even without being thrown, it began to set the space around it alight. "Submit!"

"Never!" Rias shouted defiantly.

Raiser scowled. "Then Raiser will finish it myself!" He threw the fireball at Rias. Rias raised her barrier, but there was no telling whether or not she had the magical reserves to block another powerful attack.

The only reason she had survived so far was thanks to the struggles of Kiba and Koneko…

She pushed those thoughts aside. She had to.

For Kiba, Koneko…And Shirou. If she lost, she would never be able to look any of them in the eye ever again. Not after all they've done for her.

Any doubt now would disrupt her focus. She could not let all their efforts have been in vain.

Raiser launched his attack, and Rias braced herself.

SLAM!

Then the doors burst open and a figure was thrown right on through.

Rias only recalled a sharp scream as the figure was consumed by Raiser's attack, absorbing whatever harm had been intended for Rias. The only feature she could detect was the bright light that consumed it, signalling its retirement.

[Lord Raiser, One Bishop, Retired.]

It was Raiser's turn to appear shocked. "WHAT?!"

It was not his loss so much as the fact that his loss resulted from his own attack that disturbed and angered him.

Using his own servants as shields? The nerve of it all!

"Who has the balls!?"

"Not you!" A defiant voice answered.

As he stood in the knocked doorway, the lone youth could not stop the grin on his face.

"I on the other hand though." Shirou Tsukiharu jabbed a finger over his shoulder. "In case you're wondering about the live ammunition, I found some Miko chick patrolling the halls and remembered she was one of yours, I sensed her attack and so, I did what was convenient and threw her in the way. Better that than wasting a good punch, right?"

The five individuals inside the room were to busy gawking to give a proper response.

"I could have used the little Sister Bishop, but I decided not to, it's against my policy to attack someone so non-threating."

Raiser grit his teeth, snapping out of his shock. "YOU—"

"Shirou!"

"Shirou-san!"

Rias rushed to her Pawn with a bright, joyful, and relieved smile. Asia dropped all pretences of calmness, instead immediately running out and embracing him.

"Even though we've only been apart for such a short time, I've been so worried about you!" She cried, tears streaming down the concerns of her eyes. "I was so afraid without you, I knew you would be mad if I worried about you, but I couldn't help being afraid! I'm sorry!"

Shirou shifted uncomfortably as Asia's tears stained his front, but he sighed and reached down and patted her on the head.

"Hey, no more tears, Asia." Shirou said soothingly. "You've worked real hard to last this long. I'm sure everyone's glad about that." He gently wiped away any tears on Asia's face, no different from how he would for Mika. "You've already done enough so rest now, leave the rest to me."

Asia sniffed, then nodded.

Shirou smiled, then looked to Rias. "Looks like you're in a real mess."

Rias smiled back. "True, It's fortunate you arrived when you did. Thank you for saving me, Shirou."

"Ignore Raiser, will you." Raiser growled, reminding Shirou of his original reason for appearing there at all.

Shirou's expression became dark as he pried Asia away from him, gently nudging her over to Rias. "I'll deal with you in a second." He stepped away from Asia, walking towards the fallen forms of Kiba and Koneko. "First, I something I need to take care of."

Raiser was tempted to just attack him right then and there, but he considering such an action beneath him, so he decided to wait.

Shirou stopped and processed the sight in front of him.

"Man, you guys look like hell."

Kiba coughed. "Sorry, Shirou-kun, despite all our efforts we could even slow him down." Kiba said regretfully. "Raiser was so much stronger than we were expecting. I can't even feel my limbs."

Koneko was in to much pain to speak.

Shirou scowled, the conditions of Kiba and Koneko's bodies… They weren't the result of a battle or any kind of brawl. It was the result of a one-sided, deliberate brutalization. The kind that Shirou could stomach the most.

Shirou reached into his pocket and took out the two vials of Phoenix Tears he had.

"Well then, this'll fix that."

And with that, he dropped the contents of the vials on the Knight and Rook laying in front of him.

Then by a breath-taking effect. The Phoenix Tears droplets, no bigger than water droplets, landed on the two of them and caused a bright glow of light to cover their bodies. It was different from the retirement light as it was more silver than blue and instead of dissolving their bodies it was healing their wounds. Kiba and Koneko could feel it, it was like the warmth of a gentle summer breeze was coating their bodies, all the injuries they had were disappearing and all the pain felt like it was just a dream.

They then both stood up, their clothes still tattered and for Koneko ruined, but their conditions good as new.

Kiba and Koneko looked at each other confused by their sudden recovery, then looked at Shirou. "Shirou-kun, what was that?"

"Those were Phoenix Tears." He answered. "Turns out, there some super-healing potion that the other team had."

Rias and Asia stared in surprise. "Shirou…Where do you get those?"

Shirou grinned. "I snatched them off a pair of chumps." He then let out a small laugh.

Raiser watched with narrowed eyes, he knew exactly where Shirou must have gotten them. And it irked him that HIS family's treasured item was used to heal his enemies team. He was just as angry as he was when Shirou used his Bishop as a shield.

"Anyways." Shirou looked back at his now healed comrades. "It was a stroke of luck you guy didn't retire, it made your recovery faster."

"…Sempai, You're late." Koneko accused.

"I wasn't late, you two just showed up too soon." Shirou argued. "I mean seriously, did you actually think you had a chance of beating Raiser without me?"

They felt like an arrow just went through their self-esteem. They couldn't deny it after they just got bodied by Raiser and would have retired without his assistance, but it still wasn't something they liked to be reminded of.

"But." Shirou continued. "You two did defend Rias long enough for me to get here, good job on that, you just saved us the game."

Now they were just surprised, of all things they never expected to hear praise from their group's Pawn.

Shirou then turned around and looked with determination towards his hated foe. Raiser Phenex.

"Now then, leave this one to me."

Shirou then started walking towards the Pure-Blood nobleman.

"Wait—" Kiba turned to help him, but Rias gestured him not to. "But Chief, we shouldn't let him face Raiser alone, that's too much."

"Then what else can we do?" It was then that the Knight noticed the certainty in his master's voice.

"Huh?"

"None of us, not even myself could do a thing against Raiser." She reminded Kiba. "Right now there's nothing more we can do, so let's place our trust in him. I believe if anyone can defeat Raiser, it's Shirou."

Asia nodded in agreement, though they could see her trembling.

When they looked at Shirou, all they could see was his back. But right now it seemed almost different, it looked strong, distance, and it made them feel like it was safe to put there trust in him. Shirou from the moment he appeared completely changed their entire situation. They were facing deep despair, there was nothing they could do and out of nowhere, he cut through that despair and replaced it with hope.

He had turned despair into hope.

That's why in this moment, all they could do was believe in him.

 **Play OST Zombie Loan - Main Theme**

Shirou stood in front of Raiser, staring the noble Devil down with unwavering eyes.

"Long time no see."

"Not long enough." Raiser noticed Shirou's almost untouched state. "You've reached this point without any real injuries?"

"Nah, you see unlike your girls, I spend my time on training." Shirou taunted. "Something you obviously never heard of."

Raiser scoffed. "Training, no superior being should have to spend their time covering themselves in sweat and dirt like some lowly beast." He ridiculed. "Like you."

Shirou smirked. "Well, no real warrior would spend all _there_ time in some posh, luxury room drowning in sex and sloth, like some wannabe Harem-king." He shot back. "Like you."

Raiser got angrier. "You uneducated, diminutive swine." He growled. "It seems you still don't understand your place, as a man of the House of Phenex, Raiser will not rest until you have been completely crushed under—"

 **[EXPLOSION!]**

The gem on Shirou's gauntlet shined again, and his power went up through the roof. Truth is, on the way here he kept Boosting his power and kept stacking them up waiting to face Raiser before activating Explosion. Now he was confident he had the power to defeat Raiser.

 _ **DRAGON BLAST!**_

Shirou's open palm, containing a small sphere of demonic energy which drastically increased in size, promptly shut Raiser up via a giant blast of energy to the face.

The blast blew clean through Raiser and punched a hole the size of a dinner table straight through the remaining floors above them. Though it was powerful, Raiser's head immediately started to regenerate afterwards.

Shirou knew it wouldn't kill Raiser (or perhaps that information was why he felt even less need to restrain himself than normal), but it was enough that it shut Raiser up.

Much to Shirou's annoyance however, Raiser's mouth was the first thing to regenerate.

"GAH! Why is it always the goddamned face?!" Raiser screeched before rubbing his newly-reformed eyes. "When your betters are speaking to you, don't interrupt them!"

Raiser's fist, coated in flames, came down on Shirou. Shirou raised his own arm to defend against the blow and, despite his boisterous and arrogant nature, Raiser's physical strength indeed matched that of his magic. Shirou could feel that if he hadn't powered up, the blow would have pushed him back and burnt beneath Raiser's punch. But in his current state, he didn't budge a single inch and resolve different waver. He continued to return Raiser's heated gaze.

"What a puny flame."

"Stop looking at Raiser with those insolent eyes, you trash!" Raiser conjured a massive fireball in his other hand. "Raiser will finish what was started ten days ago and burn you away into nothing, you will not deny Raiser his victory! You're trash! NOW DI-"

Shirou took the opportunity to drive his bare right fist hard into Raiser's gut, so fierce and violent that a knuckle shaped bulge could have been seen on Raiser's back. Raiser could feel most of his organs threatening to leave up his throat. It hadn't driven Raiser much closer to defeat, but it still hurt like a bitch and he what felt what must have been his spine shatter and instantly repair itself.

" _Your_ victory? What makes you think you'll win?!" Shirou growled. "I hear you've never actually lost before!" Shirou grabbed Raiser by the face, tightening his vice-grip, dragging Raiser over to the window.

"MMPH!" Raiser fumed in outrage, trying to obtain the focus to summon his flames.

"People like you, who've never known defeat shouldn't act like they know the value of victory!"

 _"As for me, one lose was more than enough."_ He thought inwardly, with hate and frustration. _"And for the rest of my life, I'll never let there be a second one."_

Shirou then came out of his thoughts and leapt out the window, putting Raiser below him. He spun mid-air, swinging his leg in a powerful kick that practically blasted Raiser into the ground, destroying the spot where he landed. He used his magic to push against his feet, propelling him towards the ground. Shirou flipped forward, orienting himself right-side-up, his right foot aimed sharply downward.

There was a very nauseating _splash_ as Shirou's foot impacted against Raiser's skull seconds after the latter had hit the ground, causing it to explode like a water balloon.

"I'll show you, how painful real defeat is! NOW ACCEPT EVERY OUNCE OF MY WRATH!"

 **Music Off**

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. And first of all, what did you all think of Mika's fight was it good? was it bad? As for the Black Magic. In the canon I saw it mentioned but never seen, nor did we hear what it was and I felt that was a waste so I added it here as my version on what Black Magic is. And I decided even though Mika can use all kinds of magic, that would be her main affinity, like how Akeno's is lightning.**

 **And I decided to have Shirou steal the Phoenix Tears because I just think that's a logical thing to do. Why no one else ever even tried doing that was something I never got, it was a smart idea, and it would help turn things around.**

 **Next chapter is the main event fight between Shirou and Raiser. And the final chapter of the Rating Game, so look forward to it.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed if you want more leave a review if you liked the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	15. Final Clash, Dragon Vs Phenex

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This is part four and the final chapter of the Rating Game, it will feature nothing but an all-out fight between Shirou and Raiser, hopefully, it lives up to the hype and your expectations. Hope you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Final Clash, Dragon Vs Phenex**

* * *

 _I walked, where was I going?_

 _I didn't care, all I cared about was the simple fact that I could._

 _I was free, both myself and Mika were finally free. I had money, strength, Special skills, and other useful things that would help us live._

 _I knew that soon I would have to go to school, it would be tough. Someone like me would definitely stand out without even trying. But I didn't care about that._

 _As for Mika, I won't make her do anything she didn't want to. The thing that's most important to me now is that she stays safe. Anything else isn't a problem._

 _That's a vow I made on that day, no matter where we went, or what kind of problems came our way._ _I would protect her._

 _However, this won't be the end of our troubles, I could feel it. But even so, that wouldn't stop me from getting what I had always desired._

 _Ever since that day, I've always been striving towards the Same. Single. Goal._

 _And I'm going to get it._

 _I would rather die than ever lose sight of that dream, the dream we both shared. And I made my second vow on that night._

 _I vowed that no matter what manner of opposition I faced, I would live. I would survive. I would never allow myself to be killed, regardless of the situation, death would never be the outcome._

 _The day I ever broke one of those vows would be the day I died._

 _No matter who gets in my way. I will be victorious._

* * *

The moment his brain had regenerated enough for him to control his motor functions, Raiser immediately brought his right leg, coated in flames, around to strike Shirou in the face. Thankfully (For Shirou at least), any part of Raiser's damaged body that had flames on it was an obvious attempt of an attack, and Shirou veered to his right to avoid the kick.

Shirou being thankful for his heightened reflexes flipped off of Raiser's partially crushed body. He landed on the ground with his legs skidding backwards a few feet before standing up straight. After examining his condition, he could tell he was still as fully capable as before, all he had to do was defeat Raiser before the power of Explosion wore off, though plan B was to charge up Explosion again, but he doubted Raiser would give him the chance.

Raiser stumbled as his half-regenerated body attempted to stand, everything restoring to its proper condition. He clenched his head as if he had just experienced a terrible migraine.

That thought put a smile on Shirou's face.

"So, you think you're a comedian, do you?" Raiser sneered.

Shirou shrugged. "I'd say you're the joke here if you still think you can win that is."

"You do realize that, even if you were to destroy every single part of Raiser's body, Raiser would simply regenerate at full strength!" Flames radiated from his body, some of them were trailing up his arm into the palm of his hand and into the space just above it in the form of a massive fire. "The difference between our strength is the same as that between a dinosaur and an ant! YOU CANNOT DEFEAT RAISER!" He unleashed his flames in Shirou's direction.

"You really believe that, Dontcha?" Shirou muttered without moving from where he was standing, all he did was raise his Boosted Gear covered arm and held it up in front of his body as the flames were closing in. Soon the large blast of fire reached Shirou and completely consumed his body. Raiser smirked believing he had succeeded in inflicting large damage on his enemy, but soon his smirk was replaced with a look of surprise. The reason being that his torrent of flames started dissipating before it completely cleared.

Standing in the same spot was Shirou who was completely undamaged from that attack, the fire hadn't even left so much as a single burn. While in Shirou's left hand that stopped the flames, in his half-opened palm, there were small embers that were still there, before he completely closed his hand putting them out. Shirou then smirked.

"Hmph…So I'm an ant and you're a dinosaur, is that it?" He asked amused. "You can think that if you want, but remember that the ants have survived since the dawn of time, while the dinosaurs were the first to die out. But if you really want to be an extinct creature-" Shirou cut off his sentence.

Shirou then jumped forward from where he was standing, the ground where he was standing on exploded from the impact, and leapt towards Raiser at a blinding speed. He then punched Raiser in the face with his right arm, the hit was strong enough to knock Raiser off his feet and blew him back a few steps while spilling a few drops of blood. "-Then I hope you don't mind playing the part." He finished his sentence.

 **Play OST Naruto Shippuden - Kokuten Extended**

Raiser landed a few feet back, standing up straight. He wiped the blood off his mouth and glared. "No more talking."

Shirou nodded. "I agree."

No more banter, all they cared about now was crushing each other into dust. Shirou and Raiser kept their eyes on each other, as if they were daring each other to make the first move. The one who dared was Shirou, his dashed forward once again, this time covering his arm with magic, his fist cocked back. "Now take this!"

Shirou's fist tore through Raiser's stomach as he shot by the Phenex heir. He turned as the wound created by his attack was slowly being healed as flames started to restore his body. Shirou clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Hehehehe…You fool, that isn't going to work on Raiser." Raiser said smirking at him.

Rias and the others watched from the hole in the wall created from the start of Shirou and Raiser's fight, and unreadable expression appeared on Shirou's face.

 _"What's he thinking?"_ Rias wondered.

Suddenly Shirou smirked wickedly and said. "Good, I'd hate for this to end too early."

Raiser narrowed his eyes. "You'd hate for this to end too quickly, you say?"

"That's right, a simple fight that ends too early wouldn't satisfy me, I want to give you much worse than that." Shirou said. "I plan on dishing out every bit of power I have on you, that way even if your body is immortal, your pain threshold will break!" Shirou shot towards him again, this covering his arm in wind magic, and forming a chop in his hand, thus shaping the wind into a Sword. "I'll beat you in the most painful way possible!"

Raiser felt himself being bisected at the waist as Shirou shot by him. He quickly healed and Raiser turned around to look at him. "It doesn't matter how much power you can dish out at Raiser, it will still be nowhere near enough. Regardless, why do you assume Raiser wants to end this quickly? Raiser wants nothing more than to completely destroy you." He then cracked his knuckles. "And, Raiser wants to draw it out as much as possible."

"Then we'll be here all night." Shirou said. "You really think your regeneration powers can last that long?!" He asked as he punched him in the chest, his fist tearing through, if he was another man there would be a hole in his heart, but for Raiser he simply healed again.

"Do you think your _stamina_ can last that long?" Raiser asked, with a smirk.

"It'll last long enough for me to break the limits of your healing." Shirou proclaimed, with doubt. "Your regeneration can heal your body, but the pain still goes through, so it's just a contest of who can outlast the other," Shirou dashed at him, using both his fists, he landed a one-two combo on Raiser twice in his ribs before hitting the center of his body with a straight right, this destroyed Raiser's entire ribcage. "And it'll be a cold day in Hell before I fall before some loser like you!"

Raiser pieced his ribs back together. _"Hmph… He earnestly believes he can accomplish such a task?"_ Raiser thought, collection flames into his left palm. "Heh, you may be the Red Dragon Emperor, but trust Raiser… A Dragon is nothing compared to a Phoenix!" He said shooting off another large stream of flames at Shirou.

Reacting quickly Shirou brought his arm up, and instead of blocking it like before, he gathered magic in his hand preparing to use a spell of his own. He then held up both of his hands and unleashed a fire spell of his own, clashing Raiser's large stream of fire with his fire that was the same size. "Let's see whose flame burns stronger!" Soon Shirou's flames won out and pushed Raiser's flame back.

Raiser stared at him in shock, not from worry, but from as Shirou sent his own attack back at him. _"Is he really that big of a fool?"_

"Raiser is a Phoenix you uneducated dolt! Fire only heals Raiser!" Raiser said catching the flames and absorbing the attack into his palm. Imagine his shock when he found Shirou directly in front of him after he was finished. _"Damn! No time!"_

"Don't get cocky and let your guard down!" Shirou shouted slamming his Boosted Gear fist covered in Red energy into Raiser's stomach, driving the wind out of him.

Everyone stared in shock and astonishment as this happened.

Raiser cocked his fist back and prepared to sock Shirou across the left cheek. Shirou jumped backwards in time and avoided the punch. He smirked. "You know, right now the "Almighty Phenex", doesn't so invincible to me."

"Guhh…" Raiser coughed. "How did you exploit the timing between Raiser absorbing the fire and launching it back out? No, how did you even know about it?"

"I guessed." Shirou said with a shrug.

Raiser's eyes widened. "You guessed? then how—"

"I just acted on a hunch I had." Shirou cut him off. "Fact is, nothing is instantaneous. Just like how there's no way for you to be in two places at once. I figured just like my Gear, you also needed a cooldown time. You worked in stages: Launching an attack, then absorbing, then launching again, between all that there had to be a short cooldown time. After thinking of that, I decided it was worth a shot, so I waited for that exact moment, then when your guard was down from absorbing my fire, I closed the distance and get in a hit." Shirou smiled. "And it looks like my hunch was right."

"Tch!" Raiser scowled.

Ravel who was hovering by the building in the air, was also watching the battle and heard Shirou's explanation. _"He was able to accomplish all that based on a guess?"_ She wondered.

 _"Interesting, he's able to look at an enemies abilities from every angle while searching for flaws or weakness and then immediately acts upon them in a precise manner."_ Kiba thought while watching. _"It's as if he's both a Power-Type and a Technique-Type."_

 _"…Sempai's really strong."_ Koneko thought.

Rias was the most surprised. Even though she knew better than anyone that Shirou was incredibly strong and possessed great potential, this was actually the first time she had seen him fight before.

 _"Amazing, not only is he skilled, but somehow he's also very strategic in how he fights,"_ Rias thought. _"With his strategic mind during battle and Mika tactician abilities before battle, the two of them paired up could be unstoppable in the Official Rating Game."_

Raiser then summoned his flaming wings. "Raiser admits, Raiser underestimate you. But-" This time Raiser dashed towards Shirou. "-You also let your guard down!" Raiser said, appearing next to him, grabbing his wrist. Flames spiralling in his other hand. "Reflect this!"

"Shirou! Get away from him!" Rias shouted in worry.

"No need for that." Shirou replied, still confident.

Shirou then pivoted his leg and turned so that he was facing directly in front of Raiser. Shirou then had red energy spiralling around his left arm. As Raiser brought down his arm Shirou brought up his.

CLASH!

The result was a clash of attacks, there was a violent struggle between demonic power and fire took place that seemed to almost mirror the first clash they had ten days ago at the Occult Research Club meeting room. Though this one was much more intense.

"You Bastard!" Raiser roared.

"You must have the worst memory if you think you can beat me in a power struggle!" Shirou roared back. "THINK AGAIN!"

And with a final push, the power struggle ended with the same result as before, with Shirou blowing away Raiser's fist and sending him flying back in the opposite direction.

Once that happened, Shirou saw an opportunity at that moment and he rushed towards Raiser.

 _ **RESOUND! THUNDER: BLADE!**_

Just like before Shirou formed his hand into a chop and covered it with magic, though this time instead of wind magic, he used lightning magic, in order to form a solid blade of lightning coated over his right arm, it was as long as a Short-Sword. His blade tore through Raiser's shoulder. He pulled back and it regenerated. Shirou repeated this over and over again with the same result. Raiser finally had enough and lifted his knee to slammed it into Shirou's stomach at high speed. Shirou brought the palm of his right hand in front of his stomach and blocked Raiser's knee, then quickly jumped away.

 **Music Off**

"Hehehahahaha! Raiser admits you're quite good at dodging, but it's no use, just give up!" Raiser shouts with a smirk. "You can't beat Raiser!"

Shirou brought his arm down and his thunder blade arm vanished. "You know Raiser, I been fighting for years and have gone up against people like you wouldn't believe… And honestly, they all had one thing in common. They would always say things like, "you can't beat me", "I can't be beaten by you", "you're too weak to beat me". Every time…"

"Maybe you should have taken their words to heart then."

"Actually it's the opposite. Despite that, I've never met someone who said that, and still didn't end up being beaten by me." Shirou said with a smirk. "And you're no different, when this is over you'll just be one of them."

"Ridiculous." Raiser taunted. "You should also be aware that Raiser has also met a great many who claimed they could defeat Raiser and yet all of them have easily been defeated by Raiser."

"Yeah, all _eight_ of them." Shirou taunted back.

Raiser ignored him, though his eye twitched a little. "The point is, Raiser isn't like any of the weaklings you've faced before. This time you'll be the one to fall."

"I think you're the one missing the point." Shirou argued. "Fact is, _I'm_ unlike anyone _you've_ ever fought. This time you're going to fall."

"Well then, it seems like we'll never be able to agree on this."

"Why would we need to? The one who wins is the one who is right after all." Shirou then unfolded his Devil wings.

Raiser then had a smirk of his own.

"Heh, yes Raiser believes you are right about that." Raiser then unfolded his own wings, which looked like a bird's wings made of fire.

[And that person will be me!]

They both declared. Both of them then took off into their air and started their aerial battle in the sky.

Shirou extended his right arm towards Raiser and a red magic circle appeared in his palm. A focused red laser blast shot from Shirou's magic circle and sailed through the air towards Raiser. Raiser easily dodged the blast by flying to his side, but unfortunately for him, that attack was merely just a feint. He realized that when Shirou had suddenly appeared above his head, his fist cocked back above his head and he bore it down on Raiser.

Raiser was knocked away in a downward spiral, he could feel his skull had almost completely cracked under that blow. After a few extra seconds, Raiser's flames healed him and he straightened himself out in the air, fixing his flight path and returning to his high altitude.

Shirou flew towards him and stopped, hovering right in front his enemy King. "How strange, You dodged my first attack."

"Yes, and so what? It's a basic instinct in battle." Raiser countered.

"Yeah, you're totally right, it is." Shirou nodded, while his tone suggested he didn't believe Raiser's excuse. "And yet despite that, you didn't dodge anyone else's attack since this game started. Why is that?" Raiser narrowed his eyes at Shirou's words. "Maybe, it's possible that your healing factor is starting to reach its limits?"

Raiser glared at Shirou, Shirou noticed this and felt more confident in his theory.

"Maybe, after you took some many hits, you started to noticed something, that even though it's only a few seconds, your regenerating has started to slow down." Shirou guessed. "And because of that, you don't want to kept chancing it and possibly reach your limit, so you decided to try and start dodging some of my attacks."

Raiser clenched his fist. "Don't… Don't be absurd!" he denied angrily. "Raiser is still perfectly capable of destroying you in an instant!" The Phenex then shot a blast of flames at Shirou's head.

Shirou brought up both his arms and attempted to block the incoming fireball. Upon impact, Shirou could feel this attack was stronger than the rest, it was more raging and vibrant. Shirou struggled, trying to stop its forward march as he used his strength to try and push it back. After a bit of a struggle, Shirou raised his arms up and lifted the fireball, throwing it in a different direction. The fireball was thrown to the wayside, landing in the forest area and igniting a few trees.

But at that point Raiser began his next attack. The truth was that Raiser had only used that attack as a feint to draw away Shirou's attention, the moment before Shirou had deflected it Raiser rushed towards him. His fist was covered in flames, this time they were stronger flames than any flames he unleashed before, it was like they were a torrent of flames. Raiser appeared in front of Shirou and bore his fist down on him.

Unfortunately for Shirou, he didn't have time to dodge this attack, and so he brought up both his arms to form an X-shaped guard. But this wasn't enough, as Raiser's attack completely blew past his guard and the torrent of flames unleashed on Shirou, scorching him and causing him to plummet to the ground.

Just to make sure it stuck this time, Raiser launched another fireball right after Shirou. "Eat This!" The blast completely consumed the Silver-haired Devils body and crashed into the ground along with him.

Raiser gently floated to the ground, walking over to the crater and watching in amusement as the crowd began to gather.

Rias and Asia gathered, along with both Kiba and Koneko. Even though all of their injuries have healed, they still lost almost all their stamina and magic, as things stood they wouldn't be able to fight. But it wasn't just them, Akeno who was carrying a worn-out Mika had also appeared beside them. Finally, Ravel was standing beside them as well.

They gathered around the edge of the crater, watching the Silver-haired boy's body lay there facedown in the crater, he didn't even seem to twitch. He was strong, but a head-on attack from one of Raiser's more powerful spells without any form of protection…

Raiser believed that in all honesty it was a miracle his attack hadn't fried him completely.

Still-smoking, Shirou still didn't move a muscle. Raiser strolled right up to him, grabbing him by his collar and lifting him up, letting him hang limply in Raiser's grasp.

"Shirou-san!" Asia attempted to rushed forward, preparing the heal his wounded body.

"Asia-Sempai!" Koneko hissed grabbed her arm to stop her advance. "Don't, you can't get in between that." She warned her, worried about her safety.

"But…" Asia didn't stop, still wanting to go.

"Koneko's right Asia." Akeno informed her, stopping the two of them. It wasn't that she objected to the idea of Asia healing Shirou, but rather she would almost certainly die in she tried to get in-between them now. "Let me." Among everyone in the Gremory team, Akeno was the only one who was still in perfectly capable fighting condition, and as a magic-user, she was as strong as Rias, if not then stronger. It would be a simple for Akeno to cause a distraction and allow Asia to heal Shirou amidst the ruckus. Not necessarily easy, but simple enough for her to have confidence in the plan's success.

"You're _both_ going to die if you get anywhere near that." Mika pointed out bluntly.

"She's right." Kiba agreed. He had his injuries healed, and still had enough stamina to summon a few more Swords, but after his first attempt, he knew that it would amount to nothing against Raiser. Even if he used the Strongest Sword he could lift, Raiser would just heal and fry him. "Even if we all attack at once, I doubt we would be able to some much as scratch Raiser."

"That, and you don't want to get in the way once the Red Dragon Emperor starts getting serious."

"Yeah, and—"

There was a long silence that followed Ravel Phenex's comment.

Rias stared at the other child of the Phenex clan. "…When did you get here?"

Ravel gave a frustrated howl. "I've been here the whole time!" She crossed her arms, huffing. "Anyway, it's pretty obvious the Red Dragon Emperor isn't giving it his all. Even if he was injured, he's more than powerful enough to withstand an attack like that, my Brother just hasn't realized that yet."

"Huh, so the blonde featherbrain actually noticed." Mika said harshly, causing Ravel to shoot her a harsh glare, which Mika ignored. "She's not wrong, Big Bro's power is higher than ever thanks to his Sacred Gear and he was putting Raiser through the pace, there's no way that spell wiped him out."

"That's right, when the fight first began, Shirou used the Boosted Gear's ability to sustain his growth in power for a limited amount of time." Rias stated. "In that moment, his power was at a level where it was beyond even Raiser's own."

"But what does that mean?" Asia asked.

Rias narrowed her eyes. "It means, Shirou is planning something."

Mika smirked. "Big Bro hasn't started strutting his stuff yet."

As if on cue, Shirou's head suddenly stood upright, a wide grin on his dirty, bruised and smoking face. " _You_ , Eat This!"

 **Play OST Naruto Shippuden - Midaregami Extended**

Without any real warning, Shirou lashed out with his arm, grabbing Raiser by his wrists, holding them so tightly that there was no chance of Raiser escaping. Shirou pulled his head back before smashing it forward, slamming Raiser right in the centre of his face with Shirou's own forehead. There was a crunch of cartilage as Raiser's nose broke, the pain caused the older Devil to relinquish his grip on the younger.

Shirou brought his leg around in a sweeping kick, but Raiser already hovered back to increase the distance between them. Shirou, likewise leapt back, albeit for different reasons.

He only had a limited amount of time on how long Explosion would last. Shirou was under no delusion that would he still have the power to defeat Raiser once his Boosted abilities wore off and he knew Raiser wouldn't allow him to just power up again when it was over. He couldn't afford to be wasteful. Even though Explosion lasted a minute for every Boost he stacked up before using it, that was still only minutes, he had to make every second count.

Shirou knew it would take some work to bring Raiser down. Even if his body wasn't as tough as Isabela's and even if his hand-to-hand capabilities were beneath his own, Raiser's strength was still considerable and he still had the upper-hand over Shirou in terms of magic power. This battle was literally the hardest either of them had ever been in.

With the time left on his ticking clock ticking away, he knew he only had a certain amount of time to defeat Raiser before things took a turn for the worst. There was no one else on the battlefield besides the two of them who could defeat each other, so they had to settle this if they wanted to win the game. The only way Shirou could win was to keep going on the offensive until Raiser was beaten.

"Grrh!" Raiser dashed at him, kicking at Shirou, only to be intercepted by Shirou's leg, their shins meeting. A circle glowed by Shirou's leg. They landed on the ground and started a violent exchange of blows, their fists met multiple times. At the end they locked hands, pushing against each other in a struggle of strength, until Shirou ducked under releasing his grip, making Raiser go over him. Shirou grabbed Raiser's other leg and swung him into the ground, the impact was so great he cracked the ground beneath him. Raiser got up, slightly in a daze before he cleared up his head. He noticed his right leg was missing, before seeing it in Shirou's hand.

"Missing something?" Shirou asked, taunting. He tossed it to him and it dissolved into fire before reattaching itself to Raiser.

"Tch…" Raiser scowled. "You scum."

They continued, as Raiser jerked his head out of the way when Shirou appeared in front of him and punched at it. Shirou smirked and twisted his hand around, grabbing the back of Raiser's head and bringing his knee up to Raiser's stomach, giving him a Muay Thai knee attack in the gut. Raiser coughed but countered by driving his elbow into Shirou's head.

"Grh." Shirou grunted, tanking the blow. Then he pushed Raiser to a vertical base and punched him in the face, then the chest, stomach, ribs, and face again in that order in quick succession. He then spun, backhanded Raiser in the cheek, spun again and roundhouse kicked him in the temple, knocking him into the ground.

Shirou spun in mid-air before landing on the ground a few feet from Raiser.

All those present watched in amazement and awe on the course of this fight.

"A-Amazing…" Kiba muttered.

 _"At this rate, he just might do it."_ Rias thought, feeling hopeful.

 _"Unbelievable…This is the first time I've ever seen Onii-sama struggle like this."_ Ravel thought, feeling unsure.

"Grh…" Raiser grunted as he pushed himself upwards. Blood dripping from his nose. His glare looking all the more murderous.

"Man, you sure do bleed a lot for someone whose supposedly immortal." Shirou commented. "Should probably work on that sometime."

"How dare you continue on spilling Raiser's blood!" Raiser roared. "Such a thing should be—"

"Impossible? Not true actually." Shirou said, cutting him off. "I'm just better than you is all. You might have a leg-up in magic, but I'm stronger than you in every other regard and I've got way more skill than you as well. Now, are you going to get up so we can keep going? Or do you feel like tapping out already?" He mocked, completely looking down on Raiser, which only served to anger Raiser more.

"Krgh!" Raiser growled and got to his feet. "Don't get so full of yourself, Pawn!" He gathered flames in his hands and fired a large stream of fire at Shirou. "You are nothing before Raiser! NOTHING!"

 _ **HELLFIRE!**_

Shirou made no move to dodge and instead extended his arm forward and a magic circle appeared on his palm.

 _ **WATER TORRENT!**_

Rias and the others gasped as a surging blast of water fired from Shirou's hand and collided with Raiser's Hell-Fire spell. The result was a clash between the two elements that were both very large and destructive, in the center of the clash a large amount of steam was erupting from the two spells clashing.

"Ha! You fool, the Hell-Fire of Raiser's clan can burn anything in this world into ashes!" Raiser declared, confident. "A simple water spell could never hope to overcome it!"

"Is that so? Well look again!" Shirou responded, putting more magic in his spell.

Soon the Water Torrent and Hell-Fire started to lose their concentrated forms and fluctuate wildly, the rapid rise and drop of the temperature that was born from the intense clashing fire and water was causing a strong gust of wind to blow out in every direction. Soon this came to an end when both spell instantly went out resulting in a draw. When the steam clear Raiser was seen looking wide-eyed by the results.

 **Music Off**

"But how…? This can't be!" Raiser shouted in defiance.

"And why not?" Shirou asked, walking out from the cloud of steam. "Just because you've got more magic? Sorry to break it to ya, but that doesn't always guarantee victory."

 _"He matched Raiser's magic to a draw."_ Rias thought, impressed. _"Shirou's breaking past any of Raiser's offence while attacking him to destroy his defence. He's overwhelming him."_

"But he has lesser magic? How in the world…" Ravel wondered.

"It isn't about having more magic." Mika called out getting her attention. "Big Bro knew that he couldn't bring out a spell stronger than Raiser's, so instead he compensated for that weakness by using a spell that had an elemental advantage of Raiser's, for example, water magic." She explained. "But that alone wouldn't close the gap and he knew that the real purpose for that spell was to slowly lessen the power of Raiser's Hell-Fire by slowly evaporating his fire with water magic, after he lessened the power of the Hell-Fire, he timed it just right and increased the power of his spell at that moment. Once the Water Torrent powered up and the Hell-Fire powered down, they were equal in strength and so the struggled ended in a tie. Big Bro used his head, instead of fighting desperate, he fought smart like he always does."

Ravel processed this new information and was surprised, from what she had seen of Shirou, she never once assumed he put so much fought into his fighting.

Back to the fight. The Phenex King and Gremory Pawn were in a stand off.

"Face facts Raiser. It doesn't matter how much fire power you've got." Shirou rushed forward appearing in front of Raiser, jumping in the air and kneeing him in the chin. "I'll just keep hammering away at you until you'll wish you could die!"

"Gahh!" Raiser gasped in pain as he was driven back.

"You see, someone like you, whose lived the completely lavish, rich boy lifestyle, can't even dream of outlasting someone like me who lives and breaths fighting in battle of who drops first." Shirou said with a smirk. "The day that happens, I'll renounce my name."

"I've won eight Rating Games and have only lost twice." Raiser countered.

"You mean you "threw the match twice", Yeah I heard, about you being a sell-out and all." Shirou said. Raiser glared at him. "Besides even then it doesn't change anything, like I said before, unlike you, it took blood, sweat, and tears for me to gain my power. But all you did was use the power you got from the cradle and decided that it would carry you the rest of your life, you seriously believe you're above training? Let's see you say even after all the times I knocked you flat on your ass." Now Raiser almost growled at Shirou. "But, as much as I hate to admit it, you are strong, stronger than I was ten days ago." He then raised his gauntlet. "But right now, in this moment, you're no match for me!"

"Don't be conceited!" Raiser growled. "You dare to believe Raiser is inferior some Dragon-Trash like you!"

"I don't think, I know." Shirou said, he then disappeared and reappeared in front of Raiser in the air, and punched him dead in the face. He pursed him and repeated this action, before kicking him in the back of his head, sending Raiser to Shirou's right. Shirou reappeared in his previous spot. "In terms of how much power you got, it might be trouble for me, but all you can do is charge and fire, without a trace of skill. And you seriously think that some "power idiot" whose only trick is to just burn everything in front of him can beat me?" Shirou scoffed. "Keep on dreaming."

"D-Damn you…" Raiser sneered.

Shirou crossed his arms and looked satisfied while smirking.

Raiser quickly went on the offensive. He appeared in front of Shirou with a fist coated in flames and socked Shirou across the face, sending him flying to his left. Raiser chased after him, grabbing Shirou's leg and swinging him into the ground. He was on top of Shirou in a second, driving his face across the ground, before punching him in the stomach and throwing him into the ground.

Raiser then approached Shirou at the pace of a casual stroll. "Raiser also hates to admit it, but you are also indeed strong Red Dragon. Give it a year, no maybe just six months and you might have had the ability to defeat Raiser." Raiser looked down at him with a condescending smile. "But don't worry, after Rias becomes Raiser's bride, Raiser will train you, you'll become a strong Devil."

Shirou sighed. "…Thanks, but I'll pass." Raiser's eyes widened, he didn't expect Shirou to sound so unhurt after taking some many attacks. "Besides, I don't need six months to beat you, I can do it now." Shirou slapped his hand against the ground, channelling his mana through his Sacred Gear and into the soil. A magic circle appeared where his hand touched, a red line of energy tracing from it into the earth.

It stopped right in front of Raiser's feet.

Raiser raised a brow at the sight beneath him before turning to Shirou. "Was that supposed to—"

His words were interrupted by the ten-foot rock spire that shot out from the ground, impaling him through the chest.

His expression was outraged, but the only noises Raiser could make (on account of his destroyed lungs, and more than likely, vocal cords) were a series of gurgling noises.

Though surprisingly enough, despite having a massive stone going through his chest, Raiser's ability to use magic was completely unhindered.

Instead of simply breaking the magic, Raiser chose to break his own body, pulling away from the spire at the cost of ripping through his side. Given his regeneration powers, it made little difference as his wounds immediately healed afterwards. Raiser then unleashed a stream of flames at Shirou, completely obliterating the spot he had been standing on.

Only Shirou wasn't standing there anymore.

In a split-second, he was in front of Raiser, his legs bent as if he skidded to stop. He looked up at Raiser, a merciless look in his eyes.

Shirou cupped both of his hands together, conjuring a ball of energy the size of a soccer ball between them.

The sphere soon became larger and more powerful. Even Raiser could not help the faint intimidation he felt from the aura alone.

 _ **DRAGON BLAST!**_

He unleashed the blast point-blank, emitting such a roar that it made the heavens themselves tremble. The blast of energy was blinding, far more powerful than anything Shirou had unleashed by that point.

As before, Raiser's body began to regenerate. "You're truly becoming a thorn in Raiser said, you—"

Shirou decked Raiser in the face before his head had even properly reassembled itself. The blow was fierce enough to immediately splatter his non-existent brains once more.

The rest of Raiser's body stumbled, waiting for his head to follow suit. Before then, Shirou brought up his knee, striking Raiser in the stomach and knocking his body away from him. Raiser's head finally regenerated and he stumbled slightly before getting up.

A tempest of fire burst from the ground beneath his feet, all but dancing around him. "Raiser can heal from any injury you inflict upon me! As far as your meagre status is concerned, Raiser is immortal! You cannot defeat Raiser, peasant! Raiser's wounds heal faster than you can make them!"

"Then I guess I'll just have to hit you OVER-" Shirou struck Raiser in the abdomen. "-AND OVER-" Another blow to Raiser's jaw. "-AND OVER AGAIN UNTIL YOU STAY DOWN!" Shirou blocked Raiser's flaming fist before taking the opportunity to whip his leg around Raiser's side. "And BECAUSE you can regenerate—"

It was a sort of sharp crack followed by a sloshing sound.

That was what it sounded like when Shirou swept his leg clean through Raiser's skull. All that was left behind of his head was his lower jaw, his tongue flapping aimlessly around in what had been his mouth. A pained gurgle/gasp escaped Raiser's head stump, his hands trembling as they reached for something that wasn't there.

"I don't have to hold back!"

"You braaaaaaaaaat!" Raiser screeched as his head began to reconstruct itself from nothing, pure anger showing on Raiser's face. His hand was engulfed with fire, the flame swelling around and blooming as it was fed more power. "Raiser will show you what happens when you dare to trifle with Raiser!" Raiser poured an even greater amount of mana into his flames than usual, unleashing flames that coated his entire body, almost now resembling a miniature sun. "Dodge this next attack if you dare! But be warned of the consequences!"

Shirou narrowed his eyes at that last remark. Enough though he knew he had to avoid this next attack at all cost, it was far too powerful for to attempt to just tank or deflect. What consequences was Raiser talking about…

Then in a moment of realization, Shirou turned around and understood what Raiser was truly planning. Directly behind where Shirou was standing, a few meters away, stood Rias and the entire Gremory Peerage in the line of fire.

Now Shirou understood, even though he had to dodge, he couldn't because then the flames would consume them. And he couldn't allow that for obvious reasons, like how they're all injured or exhausted, if they were to be hit of an attack of this magnitude they would most likely die, and even if they survived their injuries would be critical. Another reason being Rias was there, if she got hit by this attack, it would undoubtedly take her out of the fight and that would result in a automatic loss, which was something none of them could afford. And then finally and most important reason, Mika and Asia were there.

"DIIIIEEEEEE!" The flames radiated off Raiser's body as he unleashed his attack, creating five large tendrils of flames that shot forward from his hands, carving through the land in an unrelenting wave towards their target, propelling forward by the power of Raiser's wind magic.

Shirou grit his teeth and clenched his fist, pure frustration was on his expression. "Damnit, YOU BAASSSTTTAARDDD!" Shirou roared before blasted forward towards the raging flames that were on course to burn everything to cinders.

 **Play OST Dragon Ball Super - Desperate Assault Extended**

Shirou had reached the tendrils of flames and outstretched both his arms in front of him and conjured a magical barrier in the palm of his hands in an attempt to stop them. Once he did so, the blast slowed down almost as if it had stopped, but in truth Shirou was struggling with every fibre of his being to do this much. While doing this, his body felt like it was being robbed of all its energy and stamina, his bones were grating, his muscles were crying out in pain, he couldn't afford to relax a single finger, a single muscle, otherwise, he would be consumed by the flames in the next moment.

Shirou felt as though he was trying to stop a bullet train from advancing with his bare hands, while he was being hit by a raging heatwave that was scorching his flesh like being in front of a giant open bonfire. Shirou wasn't sure how much longer he could last. And to make things even worse, the effects of Explosion were about to reach their time limit, and trigger a reset. _"Dammit, power! I need more power! I refuse to escape defeat! I ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT STOP HERE!"_

Shirou's ragging thoughts were suddenly cut off hen he noticed something odd.

It was faint, but could swear the weight had somehow lessened, not by much but still enough to be noticed.

He didn't understand why this had suddenly happened until he turned to his right and saw the answer in the form of a tired and barely stable magical barrier alongside his own trying to struggle against the force of Raiser's Hellish flames. That wasn't what surprised Shirou though, his surprise was caused by the sight of the one who was forming the barrier, it was nonother then the Crimson-haired master of his team. Rias Gremory.

She looked even worse off than Shirou was in her attempt to stop the spell, it was like trying to use a simple brick wall stop an eighteen-wheeler truck. Rias was barely hanging on.

"Rias?!" Shirou called out, he could only stare uncertainly whether or not she had gone crazy. "What the hell are you doing?! Get away from here!"

"I refuse!" The Crimson-haired Devil kept her focus on her barrier, not being able to afford not to as it was slowly starting to shatter. "I'm going to protect you!"

Shirou froze.

Even though every second of this struggle clearly pained her, Rias pushed herself forward refusing to be pushed back, pouring each last bit of her magic in her barrier. A gasp of pain escaped her mouth, and Shirou could tell she was reaching her limit. Most likely the shockwaves and the gusts as the air pressure shift due to the extreme increase in temperature was making it harder for her to last.

"Are you insane! You're in no position to keep fighting!" Shirou snapped at her. "You need to get back! We'll lose if you get taken out!"

"But don't you understand YOU'RE doing the same thing!" Rias snapped back, taking Shirou aback. "You're our only hope of defeating Raiser! Even if it's not much, I can at least do this for you! No matter what, I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS ALONE!"

Shirou started to get frustrated, another strong push from the tendrils of flames reminded him they were running out of time and magic.

"Knock it off already! You're just going to get in the way!" Shirou didn't have time for this, he needed to think of a plan.

However, not only did Rias ignore him, she tightened her grasp, and Shirou realized that she was pushing herself beyond her limits to stay on her feet at this point.

"I'm going…" Rias grimaced. "…To protect you."

Rias still refused to stop, managing to stop herself from budging an inch backwards, a testament of how strong a magic-user she was to be able to hang on, even in the state she was in. But it was still a lot for her, she could feel her hands starting to roast. A scream escaped her mouth.

"You're my servant!" Rias hissed, tears falling from her eyes as she tried to push herself forward again. "If I can't protect you…Then what good am I as a master?! I won't let anyone… Scar you ever again!"

It was hard to understand how Shirou could keep his barrier up, while he was completely stunned.

Rias let out a defiant scream of agony as she forced all her strength into her arms and legs, forcing herself to fight through her pain.

She was as unsteady as a drunkard, her skin started to singed, the weight she was trying to push back was continuing to bear down on her and Shirou was pretty sure her arms would soon break, but still she stood. Even though she looked like she could drop any moment, Shirou could still see a fire more intense than any flame of Raiser's in her eyes.

She wasn't going to give up.

Shirou wasn't quite sure what happened in the second he had stopped paying attention, but when his focus came back, he was standing beside Rias, his arms outstretched against the tendrils of flames.

"This time…" Rias weakly kept her arms up, her barrier on the verge of breaking. "I will…"

Shirou let out a tired sigh, turning his head to face Rias. "You stubborn woman…" Shirou then removed one of his hands from his barrier and instead pointed it towards Rias. There was a loud _whoosh_ as blasted a gust of wind towards Rias blowing her away from him and the flames, like a piece of paper caught in a draft. "I haven't fallen so low to the point where I need help."

In that moment, Shirou's barrier had finally reached its limit and completely shattered, the tendrils of flames finally unleashed their power and rained down on Shirou.

 _"This is nothing!"_ Shirou thought, not backing down. _"I already have all the power I need! Something like this WON'T STOP ME!"_

 **[DRAGON BOOSTER: SECOND LIBERATION!]**

 **Music Off**

In that second, even though the announcement that came from the Boosted Gear should have been Reset and Shirou's power should have dropped. What happened instead was a new announcement activated, the green jewel embedded in the Gear shined even brighter than ever before and the entire Sacred Gear started to glow a green light.

At the same time, blood-curdling screams were heard emitting from Shirou's mouth his body was tortured within the pillar of fire that had just consumed him. Afterwards the large pillar of detonated into a raging inferno that covered a wide-spread on the ground, like the fiery remains of an activated bomb explosion.

"SHIROU!" Rias called out, feeling a tremendous amount of fear and worry overcome her mind.

The rest of the Gremory Peerage along with Ravel soon gather around the inferno, also fearing for the Red Dragon Emperor's fate.

"…No way." Kiba spoke, not wanting to believe the worst.

Akeno had tears streaming down her eyes, while she covered her mouth with her hand. "Shirou-kun…"

Asia had a look of complete despair, she couldn't stop her tears. "Sh-Shirou-san?"

Mika just looked like she was in a daze like her mind couldn't comprehend what had just happened. "…Big…Bro?"

Rias seemed almost as bad, she could only stare at the fire and smoke in front of her hoping it wasn't true. "…This can't be." She fell to her knees, never feeling lower than right now. "…I failed. I couldn't protect him." Rias grit her teeth in frustration and grief. "I'm a failure of a master."

Raiser himself soon landed in front of them, standing only a few steps from the inferno of his own creation, he smirked believing things were finally settled. Even though, he had been dealt many blows, Shirou assault had not laid any lasting injury on Raiser. He may as well done nothing at all.

"You may as well resign, darling." Raiser taunted. "Your Peerage has now completely fallen in disgrace. Your Knight and Rook were no match for Raiser, your Bishop and the lovely Mika aren't capable of fighting at all, at this point. Even your pet Red Dragon Emperor could do nought but annoy Raiser as I fly would. It's time to accept your defeat and accept your duty as Raiser's bride. This match is over. Let us bond our families in a tie of blood matrimony."

Rias looked up at in with a glare, murder in her eyes along with tears. "Raiser… I won't forgive you."

Raiser scoffed at Rias' murderous declaration. "A noble gesture Rias, but Raiser doubts your current appearance brings any Pride to your house. You're on your last legs, and if you continue it won't look good for your house or Raiser's. It was a nauseatingly touching attempt to aid him, it really was, but you are now out of any pieces to play and your last hope has been incinerated, he is done."

 _WHOOSH!_

 _SLICK!_

Suddenly before anyone could blink, a large gush appeared on Raiser's shoulder.

"This match is over? Who decided that?"

Everyone's attention suddenly shifted to the voice that just spoke and everyone recognized it.

"I'm done? Who decided that?"

Everyone was completely shocked at what they saw, but none were more shocked than Raiser.

Suddenly the flames started to fluctuate as if they were hit was a strong breeze and in the center there was human-shaped silhouette whose body had a emerald green aura emanating around him. Soon the silhouette appeared and walked out of the flames without trouble. It was relieved to be nonother the smoldering form of Shirou Tsukiharu who seemed unbothered by the flames around his body.

" _I_ decide when I'm done." Shirou said, soon the fire on his body went out.

The members of the Gremory group felt relief come over them, but in an instant, that relief turned to a breath-stopping shock the moment they took a look at him.

Even though Shirou seemed well, the fact was the flames that just rained down on him burned a lot of his combat suit, in particular his gloves, jacket, shirt, and everything else from the waist-up, which included his bandages that usually covered his torso. That in it of itself gave everyone present a complete, unhindered view of the scars that littered Shirou's body. Their reactions varied.

Kiba and Koneko felt extreme shock, not feeling sure what to say, other than the fact that it was a terrifying sight that clearly held an even more terrifying origin. Asia looked on with grief, closing her eyes and having her tears come again. Mika kept her head down, but clenched her fist while her body was trembling. Rias looked at them with sadness, not wanting to have been reminded of those scars so soon, but she didn't look away, she wouldn't allow herself to advert her eyes no matter how much it hurt her to see them, because she knew it was far more painful for Shirou. Akeno was just as shocked as everyone else, but then noticed how both Rias and Asia were reacting, it was almost as if they had seen them before. And at that moment, she believed she figured out what the two of them saw back at the in-door baths during training.

Raiser, on the other hand, looked with disbelief, that fact was he put everything he had in that last attack, and yet Shirou doesn't even seem to be breathing heavily. His shoulder was already healed.

"H-Heh, well you may seem confident, but it looks like you took more damage from Raiser's attack than even you were expecting." Raiser taunted, referring to his enemy's scared and damaged body.

"You might want to get your facts straight, the only thing your attack burned away was my flamboyant wardrobe." Shirou corrected him. "These scars of mine, have been with me since childhood."

Shirou placed a hand on his chest, in truth he was upset that his scars were revealed, but right now he couldn't worry about that. In fact he noticed something had changed, first starters his Boosted Gear had changed its appearance. First the top of the gauntlet went from having a round edge to a pointed edge, the length of the gauntlet extended from his forearm to his elbow, the scale-design became spikier, a second green jewel appeared at the lower part of the gauntlet emerging at the end of the forearm, and six more golden spikes appeared on the gauntlet, two on the top edge pointing forward almost resembling horns, and four small ones in a square pattern in-between the two jewels.

It wasn't just the appearance that changed, Shirou couldn't explain the reason but, it almost felt as though new information had just been inserted into his mind on what this new transformation of his Gear meant, and what new abilities it gave him. Like how, he knew that after the Boosted Gear transformed, the power he built up didn't vanish and trigger a Reset, on the contrary, his power had sustained itself, both restarting and extending the time limit on Explosion, even increasing the power he had to a higher level than before.

And he also gained a new ability with the Boosted Gear which he would try out later.

But for now, all he wanted was to put an end to this drawn-out fight.

SHHLLLCCCK!

 **Play OST Nanatsu No Taizai/Seven Deadly Sins - Escanor's OST**

Shirou's left fist punched clean through Raiser's chest, grabbing and crashing his heart in hand.

"Hehehehehehe~" Shirou grinned. It was not one of amusement, but pure ecstasy, he could feel power coursing through every point of his body. And he loved it. "You know something, Raiser?" It was something of a slimy feeling as Shirou retracted his arm from Raiser's chest, making him subconsciously grateful for the protection of his gauntlet. "You really chose the wrong enemy this time!"

He heard Raiser try and approach him, so he shifted to his right and decked Raiser in the face, knocking him to the ground and making him bleed once again.

"Gah!" Raiser said as he stumbled, getting back up. His regeneration activating yet again. "Don't talk down to Raiser, you insignificant dog! Raiser will kill you!" In the second Shirou took to recover from his strike, Raiser extended his hand towards Shirou's torso, unleashing a miniature explosion that launched Shirou back, the younger Devil coughed up a bit of blood and was knocked to the ground.

Raiser coughed, he could feel his regeneration for the first time in his life, reaching its limit. He walked tiredly towards the fallen Shirou. "Ah… Why? Why won't you die?! Raiser's used every ounce of power I have to kill you, but it doesn't seem to be enough! DIE ALREADY!"

As he reached him, he prepared to attack, Shirou quickly shot up from the ground and prepared to attack as well. Raiser could still see the tempered steel within the eyes of the Sliver-haired boy. A part of him begrudging respect that.

"YOU FIRST!" Shirou charged forward, gathering power into his left fist. Raiser likewise gathered a massive flame in his own hand.

Their attacks clashed with violent fury, shockwaves tearing apart the earth beneath them and creating turbulent winds around them. Their own force pulled them apart, but Raiser increased the volume of his flame wings, using them to launch himself forward at his opponent.

He delivered a mean, burning cross across the left side of Shirou's face. Refusing the be knocked about, Shirou pulled out his other fist and thrust it as hard as he could into Raiser's gut. Again, the two knocked themselves away. This brief interlude did not last much longer than the previous one.

Shirou was the first to regain his footing, he charged at Raiser and punched him in the chest. Raiser grunted in pain. Every time Shirou had hit him, Raiser's regeneration rate began to slow down. Shirou shoved him back and then disappeared from sight as Raiser punched at him. Raiser turned to find Shirou behind him, his fists already clenched.

Shirou struck Raiser body again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

All one hundred times. Shirou kept attacking, he didn't give Raiser time to fight back. He didn't let him breathe. He didn't let him think. He knew there wouldn't be another chance like this. He needed to hit him with every bit of damage he could. This was his chance to win.

Raiser immediately coated his body with fire and blew Shirou back, he knew he couldn't last if that kept up. He could feel almost all his bones break after from that onslaught. It became clearer and clearer as time went on that Raiser's wounds were starting to heal at a much slower rate.

The match was beginning to feel even in only one regard: Shirou was covered in numerous injuries but possessed an unbreakable will and endurance that far exceeded not only human logic, but even that of normal Devils. Raiser meanwhile, had far less stamina, showing by the deep breaths he took as his exhausting was really taking its toll, but a factor that allowed him to heal from any wound Shirou dealt him…Though for how long was a concerning question.

Shirou kicked Raiser in the temple, sending him back to the ground. Shirou landed back on the ground as well. Raiser got up and rushed towards him. They traded blows, each more unsuccessful than the last. Occasionally landing a glancing blow here and there. The two kicked each other in the head, Raiser lunged forward and uppercut Shirou, who pushed his fist down along with his chin and drove his elbow into Raiser's ribs. The Phenex responded by driving his fist into Shirou's face making him stagger backwards, however this was just a feint as Shirou lunged in and kicked Raiser in the chin sending him backwards. He landed on the ground and stared across at Shirou.

They met again, Raiser this time encircled flames around his fingers forming makeshift claws. Every time they traded blows Raiser cut into him with his claws. Shirou punched him in the face, Raiser responded by clawing up Shirou's chest. However as they traded blows, every time Raiser clawed at him, or knocked him back, or punched and kicked him in the face. Shirou always bounced back, unrelenting with the same steeled look in his eyes.

Feeling desperate, Raiser brought his blazing fist around, reducing the size of the flames and increasing their intensity. He could not afford any more theatrics. If he wanted to defeat his opponent, he would have to come close to _killing_ him. "FALL DAMNIT!"

 **Music Off**

Raiser's fist punctured a large hole through Shirou's chest, beginning to burn him from the inside-out. Blood spewed from both Shirou's wound and his mouth in large volumes. Even though by all rights, he should have passed out from the pain or been rendered unconscious, Shirou reached out his hand and tightly gripped Raiser's wrist. His breathing was heavy and pained, but he showed no signs of weakness, the tempered steel in his gaze reminded as strong as ever.

"Surrender." Raiser said. He admitted to being hotheaded, and at times merciless, but even he could not help but feel respect for someone who persevered _through having a hole burned through their chest_ and still wanted to keep fighting. Granted, such fates were casual accomplishments for members of the House of Phenex, but not so much for a reincarnated Devil, even if they were in possession of a Longinus-class Sacred Gear. "It appears you are not quite at the level where you can defeat Raiser, but Raiser must commend you, boy. You've come further than anyone would have ever expected of you. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Perhaps given one month-No, maybe just even a week or two. You could have even surpassed Raiser in terms of power, but in the end, as you are now, endurance and willpower will only take you so far. Nobody will fault you for losing here."

Shirou tightened his grasp, and Raiser noticed his own wrist had been broken from the pressure.

"I told you before." Shirou smirked. Enough though he was gravely injured, he still did not relinquish his grip on Raiser with his left hand. "I don't need months or weeks to beat! I can do it NOW!" Shirou raised his right hand, tightening it into a fist, his body increasing its demonic power. Raiser tried to remove his arm, but Shirou even more thoroughly crushed his bones in his grip.

 **Play OST My Hero Academia - United States Of Smash**

Raiser attempted to unleash radiant flames from his body, burning Shirou, but it could not stop him.

Shirou caught Raiser's face with his knuckles, smashing his head backwards and knocking him away into the ground with an earth-shattering force.

Raiser coughed out, his own blood trailing from the corners of his mouth. His regeneration factor was taking a great deal longer this time around. Even if he showed no injury, Shirou could tell that Raiser was close to running out of stamina.

Shirou did not smirk or grin or smile or laugh. He continued piercing Raiser with his gaze. The next blow would be the last.

Shirou began to gather all of his remaining power around him, first, the wind around him became wilder, then the earth beneath him began to crack, then his aura flared to a blinding glow. Shirou was going to end this fight. Shirou charged at Raiser with all his might.

Raiser, in turn, gathered all his remaining power into his arms and fires off a large column of flames that morphed into the shape of a Phoenix, It shot out and blasted towards Shirou.

The two meet and Shirou extended his arm, attempting to break through this final obstacle and defeat his opponent, they both let out a defiant roar.

"AAAGGGGHHHHH!" Raiser roared.

"HAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHH!" Shirou roared.

 _"I am…"_ Shirou thought.

* * *

 _"No matter who gets in my way, I will be victorious."_

 _"The day I ever break that vow is the day I die."_

 _"Everywhere I go, there's always those who try and take from me."_

 _"They try and take everything from me."_

 _"That's why I will never be defeated."_

 _"I'll always fight and defeat any enemy."_

 _"Whether there's one or whether there's a thousand."_

 _"Whether they're a Human or some monster from Hell."_

 _"I will defeat them in the most merciless way possible."_

 _"So that they'll try and dare to take from me again."_

 _Shirou looked down at his resting younger sister in his arms and steeled his determination._

 _"I am…I am…"_

* * *

"I AM SHIROU-SAMA!"

Shirou didn't realize it at the time. But at that moment his aura turned from green to a jet-black colour. The same that appeared during his fighting against the Fallen Angels quite some time ago, coupled with the golden glow the appeared in his eyes just like before. And just like before when this strange power appeared, his strength and abilities greatly increased as well.

That was proven when he flew straight through Raiser's final attack and cut through the air straight to him and landed right in front of him.

The moment Raiser saw his eyes and felt his aura, he felt more intimidated than ever before. He found himself frozen in place as if he was petrified.

"Boosted Gear: Gift!" Shirou called out.

 **[TRANSFER!]**

Shirou used the new ability granted to him from Second Liberation. The ability of Transfer was one that allows him to take all the Boosts he had built up and send that power to someone or something else, he could power up his allies if he wanted to. Though in this case, the Transferred all power to his arm. All of the aura began to recede from the rest of his body, trailing down to his right arm and then his hand.

Shirou raised his right arm, tightening it into a fist, his entire hand was overflowing with demonic power, Raiser knew he couldn't possibly survive this next blow. This would bring everything to an end.

"United States Of SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!"

Shirou roared with every fibre of his being from the deeps of his soul. His face crashed into Raiser's face with the force of a wrecking ball, smashing it into the ground with such a strong impact that it shook the very ground, the flat ground they were standing on was so cracked it was like an earthquake had hit, and it caused an explosion of dirt and rubble to blow out everywhere.

 **[RESET!]**

 **Music Off**

When the dust cleared, there was only one left standing. Shirou stood there in that same spot, his arm bleeding and burnt black. His body covered injuries and his aura and power up completely faded returning him to normal. Shirou immediately felt it when his power left him, the brief lull allowing the pain from all his injuries fully surface. Especially the hole through his chest. But Shirou was able to endure it, refusing to so much as flinch.

At his feet was Raiser Phenex, beaten completely into the ground, not moving an inch. He was battered, bruised and his eyes were without light implying that he was unconscious. That was proven to be a fact when his body was soon surrounded by a glowing blue light signing his retirement. His body dissipated into glowing dust.

After that…it was quite. It was silent as a grave. Those who were watching were shocked and stunned by what they had just witnessed. Even Grayfia's announcement was late.

[…Lord Raiser has retired, Lady Rias is the victor.]

Once Shirou heard those words he felt a great deal lighter. It was as if this whole time he was carrying an extremely heavy weight on his shoulders that had finally been lifted.

Then Shirou's own body started to be consumed by the glowing light of retirement, well since the game was over it made sense. Finally accepting the match's end, Shirou looked up, feeling completely at peace.

 _"Mika, I…"_ Shirou thought, a peaceful smile on his face while his eyes were covered by his bangs. _"…I won."_

His tired eyes slid closed and his body dissipated into glowing dust.

* * *

After the game had ended, Raiser woke up within a medical facility. He was lying in a bed.

He immediately felt as if he had a migraine with the way his head was ringing.

"Augh!" Raiser massaged his head. He was exhausted, more so than he had ever been, That must of been the reason why he was in a bed rather than regenerating.

Raiser knew why he was here.

He had lost.

When he looked in Shirou's eyes, he could see it plain as day. The boy would not have given up until he was the victory, through forcing Raiser to retire or by making Raiser concede. Even if Raiser had crushed his skull or tore out the boy's heart, he was not sure even that would have been enough to stop him.

Comparing his spirit to Raiser's was like comparing a wildfire to a candle.

"Brother!" Raiser rose from a sitting position as his younger sister approached his bed.

Though Ravel could have a harsh tongue, Raiser could easily tell the concern in her voice.

"It's fine." Raiser laid back down, Ravel took a place beside his bed. "But it appears that the engagement is no longer valid."

"It makes no sense," Ravel noted. "Those newbies may be strong, but we're from the House of Phenex! Losing shouldn't have been a possibility for us, shouldn't it?"

"No… This is Raiser's loss for sure." Raiser admitted, welling to fully accept the result. "That boy…Shirou Tsukiharu… is a true monster."

Ravel's eyes widened at the expression of uncertainty.

"He did not have any form of protection, but he is the first person to withstand the full power of Raiser's flames. Raiser had been trying to kill him throughout the entire match, but he took every blow and kept on fighting." Raiser said. However, the grin that broke across his face contrasted the negative implications of his words. "Raiser hates to admit it, but that boy's potential…is frightening."

Ravel just stood there, staring in shock.

Throughout her entire life, never once had she ever heard her brother describe any of his opponents as "frightening" before…

* * *

 **Play OST DRAMAtical Murder - Hikari**

Shirou immediately regretted regaining consciousness.

He wasn't struggling to stay up because of pain, but rather exhaustion. The moment of power he had used throughout the match had left him completely drained.

It was all he could do to stay awake.

He tried to speak, but his throat was incredibly dry and the sound he did produce was a hoarse and unintelligible.

He couldn't see properly, his vision was blurry…

He wanted to sleep, but he also wanted to get up…

"Ssshhh, it's alright." A gentle voice said, in a voice no louder than a whisper. "Shirou…You did it…My brave, adorable Pawn. The fighting is over. Raiser retired from the match… Me, Mika, and everyone, we're all safe thanks to you.

Even with what little awareness he had, Shirou was able to process those words.

The Rating Game…

The Gremory Team won!

He…He had managed to obtain victory…He fulfilled his promise.

He felt a soft caress on his cheek…

He could not recall this sensation, this warmth, but he also felt it was vaguely familiar…Comforting.

"Rest now." The voice said. They were words laced with magic, but Shirou didn't have the energy to resist it. He felt his eyelids become heavier. "You've earned it."

His vision cleared before his eyes closed

He caught a glimpse of Crimson…

And felt a soft touch on his lips…

A thousand blows couldn't bring down the Strongest Man in Kuoh. But those simple words were all it took to take him out like a light.

For now, he would rest. Recover his strength.

Shirou Tsukiharu slipped back into the bliss of slumber, completely at peace.

 **Music Off**

* * *

 **And that's the chapter and the end of the Rating Game. First of all, time me what you all thought, did you like, did you hate it, was it enjoyable, was it too long. I personally had so much I wanted to put into this fight so it took a while to write it all down. And I wanted the Rating Game to go out with a bang.**

 **I know some of you all were hoping to see Shirou activate Balance Breaker but I just didn't see that happening, because I just think it would be too soon for that, Shirou will get Balance Breaker soon though, not long from now and much sooner than Issei don't worry. So for now just be satisfied with Second Liberation, which I felt was the best time to debut.**

 **And let's not forget the Black Aura and Golden eyes appeared again? what do they mean why do they keep appearing at times like this? Questions that will be answered in the near future.**

 **As for everyone seeing Shirou's scars, that was just something I wanted to add for reasons that come later, And his combat suit, well he'll get a new one later, it'll be similar but have slight differences.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more then be sure to leave a review if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	16. After Party And Epilogue

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. And this chapter will be the epilogue that wraps up everything in this Arc and sets up future Arcs, though to be honest, this chapter is longer than I was planning, way longer than most epilogues. Hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **After Party And Epilogue**

* * *

"Stop fidgeting."

"I can't help it. This shirt is so damn itchy." He scratched his neck. "Why do I gotta wear this stupid monkey suit and attend some boring after-party only a day after I've gotten out of the hospital?"

"Because people I know are here and you can't go around dressing like a thug in your torn-to-pieces combat suit."

"Oh, but going to a battlefield in a Student uniform is perfectly fine? Besides I was planning on getting my combat suit fixed."

"I gave you permission to lose the tie. I don't get-Look. This will be your first time at a gathering with other nobles."

"And how is that a good thing? I would've had a much better time going home."

"Just relax. My Mother and Father went to all the effort of throwing this party for us. You may as well take advantage. Eat some five-star cuisine, mingle a little, and maybe form some connections. It's important even for young, Lower-Ranked Devils, to schmooze a little with other nobles. It's a very high pay-off in the future if you leave a good impression."

"A good impression? For those stuck-up, self-entitled, upper-crusts? How could I ever "mingle" or "schmooze" with them? And as for cuisine, I'm 100% sure I could cook food way better than anything at this party and I know you're sure of it too."

"You know, you could TRY to have some fun."

""Fun"? That's like asking a Math-nerd to have fun at a fight-club. You and I come from completely different worlds, so what's fun to you obviously won't be for me. Like this for example."

"Then, just stay as long as necessary, meet my family, spend some time party, then you can leave whenever you want. Can you agree to that."

" _Sigh_ …Fine, I'll do that much at least."

"Good, now where almost there."

The two people having this conversation kept walking a little bit longer down this long hallway until they stopped in front of a large double-door.

[Announcing the arrival of Lady Rias Gremory and Sir Shirou Tsukiharu!]

The colossal double-doors leading to the banquet hall opened at the behest of the two uniformed guards, the pair stepping aside to reveal a curvaceous woman with long, Crimson-red hair, and a lean, brutish-looking male with Sliver hair. The woman was dressed in an elegant red dress with frills around the hem, while the male of the two wore a black tuxedo, minus a tie, with the top few buttons and bottom few buttons of his blazer and dress shirt undone. His entire right arm was wrapped in bandages up to the tips of his fingers.

Shirou paused and looked around the room from left to right, inspecting the kind of night he was about to have in this gathering. He could see richly dressed people in every corner of the room, all of them wearing attire he was sure costed more than a house. And all of them seemed to be absorbed in their own conversations or meetings with similar-looking nobles. Shirou groan. "Great, it's going to one of _those_ nights."

Rias didn't respond, she simply smiled and took his hand, advancing the two of them inside the banquet hall.

"Rias!"

"Huh?" Rias turned her head, her eyes widening at the man approaching them. The man has the appearance of a middle-aged, handsome looking man with long crimson red- hair that is tied in a loose ponytail with a black hairband. He has bright blue eyes just like Rias. He also has a short and red beard or stubble. He wore an almost blindingly white suit. Shirou could tell this man has aged VERY gracefully as if he had become a full-fledged man in the recent few years. "Father!"

A brief flash of panic came over Rias' face. However, it was quickly assuaged an the older man brought her into an affectionate embrace. Rias quickly overcame her awkwardness and returned his hug, the two remained this way for an adequate five seconds before letting one another go.

"It's good to see you are doing well, Rias." Lord Gremory said. Turning to Shirou causing the boy to raise a brow. "And this must be your Pawn, The Red Dragon Emperor who brought Raiser to his defeat."

Shirou rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Uh…Yeah. Shirou Tsukiharu. I'd introduce myself but, I sure Rias already told you guys about me." Shirou wasn't usually this awkward when meeting new people. The man's demeanor _seemed_ friendly enough, but he was still a noble and Shirou honestly had no idea what to say to start a conversation with one. The fact that this was technically also meeting Rias' Dad didn't make it less awkward.

This almost stagnant movement hardly went unnoticed by Rias' father, who laughed at the display. "Oh, don't be so tense!" He turned to the rest of the party-goers, all of their stares still directed intently in their direction. "This is a celebration is it not? To the first of what I hope to be many Rating Game victories my daughter and her servants achieve!"

There was a round of cheers and raised glasses in his direction. It was like an easing wave had washed over the room, removing any bitter or otherwise negative feelings from the room and restoring the festive atmosphere. There were a few dissenting expressions showing irritation or apathy, but overall the feeling in the air was pleasant.

For all intense and purposes, Lord Gremory's friendliness seemed to ease his stress. A kind father who was happy for his child's success…

With that thought in mind, Shirou extended his hand, shaking that of Rias' father. "So, Mr…?"

"Zeoticus, Zeoticus Gremory." Lord Gremory answered the question Shirou was clearly asking for.

"Mr Zeoticus." Shirou was glad, the man's friendly nature made talking to him easier. "I'm going to be honest, I didn't expect you to be so laid-back and carefree about this whole thing. I mean, I figured the engagement was really important to you guys." He admitted. "Are you really happy that we wrecked both it and Raiser? Because that feels kind of random."

"Well, while it is quite a shame." Lord Gremory said, not losing his smile. "It isn't as though our relationship with the House of Phenex has been damaged and even if Rias doesn't produce an heir, it isn't as though it would be the end of our family line, both families still have our grandchildren after all."

"Wait what?" Shirou asked, completely thrown for a loop. "Then what was the point of all this-Wait…" Shirou blinked, rewinding a bit. "You have grandchildren?"

Zeoticus nodded. "That's right, my son, Rias' older brother has a son of his own, he's a Pure-Blood Devil, his name is Millicas."

"No kidding. With how you look, I'd never believe you were a grandfather." Shirou replied.

Zeoticus laughed. "Hahahaha. Yes well, we Devils can use magic to control our appearance so we all look younger than we actually are."

Shirou laughed a bit himself. "Hahaha, how about that."

"Back to what you said before." Zeoticus said serious. "I admit, it was a good engagement for Pure Devils, but in truth both families had too much greed. After all both of us already have Pure Devil grandchildren. Maybe it's the greed as Devils that made us crave for it. Or is it because we saw Hell in the last war." He then looked down, looking slightly regretful. "No, I also forced my greed onto my daughter.

Rias placed her hand on his hand. "Father please, I know you never had any wrong intentions."

Shirou himself was pretty surprised at what he was seeing, he was expecting himself to get really irritated at all this. The fact is he had to fight simply because others were being hasty to fix a problem that hadn't even started yet. Knowing that, he had things he wanted to say, but he could see it. The man in front of him truly understands that he made the wrong choice and isn't above admitting to it. He's even glad that it was prevented.

He really wasn't acting in the manner Shirou expected.

Though since he genuinely felt bad about it and is perfectly fine with letting it end here. Shirou decided he could do the same, it wouldn't be right to feel mad at him now. Besides, he became a lot stronger because of that Rating Game, so there's a Silver-lining.

"If anything, perhaps your victory was the positive outcome from a different perspective." Zeoticus turned to Shirou. "I've heard from Marquis Phenex. After your victory, it appears Raiser has secluded himself in the library, researching tactics and strategies for future games. His Father told me he wanted to thank you. In his own words—"

 _(What my son lacked was defeat. He overestimated the ability of our clan. This will also be a good lesson for my son. Phenex is not absolute. Just learning that was enough for this engagement, Lord Gremory.)_

"-Those are the words he wanted you to here."

Shirou blinked, his expression surprised. "Huh, I REALLY wasn't expecting that."

Zeoticus smiled. "In the end, he's still a Father after all." Shirou still seemed confused, not about what he said, but the fact that both he and Phenex act a lot more like normal parents rather than the parents of nobles that you usually see in fiction. "Still though, I think his loss to you really humbled him. You can bet he's going to start training from now on. Hahaha!"

"He's not the only one." Shirou clenched his fist. He had spent two days in the medical wings, recovering from his injuries, exhausting, and the after-effects of overusing his Sacred Gear, and when he was finally free to go about his business, Rias had informed him that he was free to watch a recording of their game against Phenex.

Shirou had immediately watched the game in full detail, at first he was searching for any mistake he might have made or wasted movements.

But while watching the end, he instead some something unexpected.

Something that concerned him.

It was something he couldn't even explain.

He saw it when he saw his final blow that finally ended Raiser, his eyes had suddenly been enveloped by an unknown golden glow and his body was emitting an even stranger black aura.

Shirou had remembered that exact moment himself, he felt his power suddenly increase at the last second. But during the fight he didn't know why, nor did he bother to think of the answer, he felt that all his focus should be on fighting the foe in front of him. But after watching that recording he couldn't ignore it. It was a strange power sleeping inside of him, and it awakened in that faceoff at the end of the match.

.

.

.

No. Awakened isn't the right word. Shirou knew this wasn't the first time this power had come to him. He remembered the feeling of having his power rise suddenly without explanation before. When he fought Raynare, and when he fought those three Fallen Angels. Every time he's in a fight where before he lands the killing blow, these traits seem to appear and grant him greater power.

And it couldn't be Devil or Dragon related because when it first came he was a human without a Sacred Gear. What really concerned him was the fact that when this power appeared, he could feel his instincts and emotions spike, as if dark presence had come over him and he became more merciless than usual. That wasn't a good thing, because if he can't control that part, he might one day step past the point of no return.

Shirou made the decision shortly before today. He would find out what that black aura and golden glow was, and he would gain control over it. Darker presence aside, he knew the power it gave him was too great an asset to not desire, and he would never allow himself to fear or turn away from something that he believes is a power that belongs to him. No matter what, he will overcome this…

A gentle, reassuring hand fell on Shirou's shoulder.

It was the hand of Zeoticus, who smiled at him reassuringly. "I understand, even though you achieved victory, you still believe that you can grow even further than your current self and desire to reach new heights. That's not a wrong thought to have, it's perfectly natural especially after your first Rating Game."

Shirou blinked. The man was right, that was exactly what he was thinking.

"But, you shouldn't in such a hurry. Right now we are enjoying a celebration, and you should enjoy it the most. After all, you are the first opponent in Raisers match history who not only brought him to his knees, but came out victorious. So why worry so much about things that have yet to happen? Or remain stuck on things that have already pasted? Instead you should take Pride in your earned victory and enjoy the feeling of what may be the first of many other victories to come."

Shirou stared, somewhat grateful. He could feel his negative emotions from before simply fade away. His normal confident smile returning to his face. "You know you're totally right, I can worry about those things later. And even if more fights come along the way, I can deal with them when they do instead of stressing out right now." Shirou turned to the Gremory head. "Thanks for the advice, Zeoticus."

It was more than just impressive.

In that moment, the man radiated a charming charisma that Shirou had found in no other person, human or Devil. His aura just _exuded_ it with a far greater power. Shirou had not even noticed he had been swept up by it, he was so concerned about some many things he would need to do later and he couldn't relax at all, and yet right now, he was just smiling, completely at ease.

He could tell why this man held the title as head of his household.

"You performed admirably, Shirou." Rias said in agreement. "If it weren't for you, we would of undoubtedly lost that match." Rias turned to her Pawn, blushing as she gently grasped Shirou's hand in her own. "You saved me. Thank you."

Shirou had experienced the feeling of lust from other girls before. Their gazes sometimes grated on his nerves, but…This was different.

The adoration in Rias' eyes held no selfish intent. It belied the boundless amount of affection she felt in her heart.

It was something he hadn't expected.

At least not from her anyway. But he took it in stride.

"Heh, oh please, you flatter me." Shirou brushed off with a smile, he then turned to Rias without saying a word, and a short silence is what followed. "I didn't say stop!"

Rias blinked, a little surprised, but then laughed. "Hahahahaha!"

Shirou joined her. "Hehehehahaha!"

The two of them only laughed for a bit, but still enjoyed themselves, the tense atmosphere that was created a moment ago was now replaced by a more light-hearted one. After they were done, Shirou looked a lot more upbeat compared to how he was when he first entered the party hall, while Rias was a lot more at ease as well, though the blush on her face was still present. As well as the fact that her hand was still grasping Shirou's hand remained.

Zeoticus Gremory looked from his blushing daughter to the laid-back young man who seemed perfectly comfortable with Rias' hand over his own, an investigative look on his face. His mouth gradually curved upward into a smile that was both knowing and teasing.

"I see, I see~ You two are closer than I was led to believe."

It didn't seem possible but it seemed that at that moment Rias' face became a deeper shade of red than her hair, nor did it seem healthy, though it happened anyway (But while Rias was blushing, her Pawn didn't seem the least be fazed by her father's words).

"No! Please don't misunderstand!" Rias spoke out, completely flustered and letting go of Shirou's hand. "It's nothing like that, we're just two people who get along well, and I was just showing my gratitude!"

Shirou then looked at her, his eyes a little narrowed.

"Could you might not sound so defensive? I'm RIGHT here."

Rias then looked back at him, her expression still the same.

"N-No um, that isn't what I meant. I was just…"

Shirou then crossed his arms.

"You were just what? And why are you so high-strung all of a sudden? Serious what is up with you?"

Rias placed a hand over her brow and then sighed.

"Do you really need me to explain it?"

Zeoticus laughed, feeling entertained by the unusual exchange he was witnessing between the two.

"A little inappropriate for a formal gathering, don't you think?" Asked another voice Shirou didn't recognize.

The one who that voice belonged to approached them.

When Shirou saw her, he could have sworn he was looking into a mirror, because the woman looked almost disturbingly similar to Rias, though her hair was a flaxen colour and she bore violet eyes instead of blue ones…

…Not to mention her rack was even larger, something Shirou had thought impossible by natural means.

"I don't like the thought of praising our daughter for breaking off an engagement we had worked so hard to procure with the Phenex." The brunette scolded, causing the red-haired man to more nervously. He showed clear caution as if this woman could destroy him at a moments notice in the worst possible way and would have if she didn't also have a clear look of affection in her eyes when she looked at him…

His wife, Shirou realized.

This was Lord Gremory's wife. The Lady Gremory.

Rias could not help but notice and grow more nervous, maybe even afraid, or the fact that she was (perhaps unconsciously) reaching for his hand. But her fear didn't seem to be like the fear of seeing something hostile or the fear of a powerful enemy. It seemed almost unmistakably to be the fear of a girl who was faced with her no-nonsense parent.

It felt weird for Shirou to see Rias acting (ironically) like an ordinary teenage girl.

"W-Well, it's not every day that our youngest child wins her very first Rating Game," Zeoticus defended. "What's wrong with doting her just a little—?"

"Because it's that attitude that fuels our child's rebelliousness." Lady Venelana Gremory scolded. "After this, The fact that we just permitted this will end up being seen as "special treatment". It's going to take a lot of effort in order to take care of things with the other High-Class Devils?"

Shirou in his own way could see where she was coming from. True, it was wrong to just leave her with Raiser, and part of her might be glad that Rias' is happy at the very least, that much can be seen on her face (even if she's trying to hide it). But the fact remains that in the world of nobility, things like these happen more often than not. It's not every day that they get cancelled at the last minute, and the problem of cleaning up the mess afterwards fall on to the parents, in this case, her. So the salvage things, she has to act professionally and work things out.

In other words, she was royally pissed.

Shirou then decided something. "Well, rebelliousness aside, you can't deny out of all the suitors you picked out for her, you clearly weren't thinking if you thought things would work out between her and Raiser." Shirou said, smiling while his eyes were narrowed. "Then again, that should have been obvious since you used stupid reasons for them to get married like "needing a Pure-Blood heir" when you clearly didn't."

Both Rias and her Father stared in shock at the Silver-haired boy who calmly talked back to the REAL holder of the house's power.

Though she had a sweet smile, Venelana Gremory could be terrifying when she wanted to be.

This situation was no exception.

"Oh, you must be the Red Dragon Emperor, I've heard about you, and you even derailed the engagement." Venelana greeted, a scary-smile on her face.

The fact was, Shirou Tsukiharu was also terrifying when he wanted to be.

Putting them together made this situation NIGHTMARISH.

"Yes, I am, glad you've heard of me." Shirou greeted back with his own, equally scary-smile. "Oh, and sorry to tell you this but I honestly haven't heard a word about you until now, but for some reason, I feel like we'll get along very well, as long as you don't set-up any more engagements for me to destroy that is."

"Well, how confident and your friendlier than I was expecting~" A malicious aura was radiating from her. "Yes, I do think we'll get along quite nicely."

"Think nothing of it, after all friendliness is a trait we both share," Shirou agreed, A malicious aura was radiating from him. "Hehehehehehe!"

"Hmhmhmhmhmhm~"

Both of them were laughing pleasantly, but the patriarch and daughter of the Gremory family could _see_ the malicious aura they were radiating towards one another.

They had visuals more akin to terrible beasts than people. Rias half-expected one to try to kill and eat the other.

"Father."

"Yes, daughter?"

"I'm scared."

"Me, too."

Eventually, Shirou heaved I tired sigh. "You know, you strike me as the straight-forward type of woman, so I'll be frank: lighten-up a bit, if only just for tonight." Shirou spoke to her in a completely casual tone, his malicious aura gone, something that made Venelana curious and his complete lack of fear brought Rias greater shock. "I understand the fact the things have turned into a huge mess for you, and you basically put in all that work on the engagement for nothing since it's now broken." Shirou then raised a finger. "But, you don't have to pretend a part of you isn't happy."

"What? You—" Venelana looked as if she was about to object, but Shirou was on a roll.

"Oh come on, you think I haven't noticed? Besides, what's wrong with that? You're her parents, even if you want Rias to act like the prim and proper noble in times like this, hence the engagement, you also want her to be happy and you knew she wouldn't be if she went through with it." Shirou pointed out. "I get it, this is something that every noble had to deal with and they can't always just back out if they don't like the guy. If you went through with it and ended up being happy then good for you. But it doesn't work for everyone, so why worry about other stuff? Instead, just act like how you really feel and enjoy yourself for tonight." After his words had finished leaving Venelana in such a frame where she needed time to respond, Shirou grabbed Rias' hand. "Come on, Rias."

"Huh…" Rias said, dazed. "Uh…sure, OK." She gave her final regards to her parents. "Mother, Father."

[Rias.]

And thus, Rias allowed herself to be led away, leaving her parents behinds near the entrance to the hall. They disappeared into the crowd, having left one second too soon to miss the other Crimson-haired man who was approaching Rias' Mother and Father, accompanied by a certain Silver-haired maid.

"He's certainly an interesting fellow, isn't he?" He said lightheartedly. "I just wish I had the opportunity to congratulate him and Rias in person."

"He's crass and straightforward." Venelana added, unable to help the small smile that appeared on her face. "And, that's what I like about him, besides, he wasn't wrong."

"Perhaps a bit too honest for his own good," Zeoticus added with a chuckle. "Still, he's rather good at seeing a persons nature."

"But that passion is something you rarely see in most Devils nowadays." The younger, Crimson-haired man praised. "It's a nice change. I admit I was surprised he was able to both match and overcome Raiser. That kind of resilience and willpower in someone so young is astonishing. I fully expected to have to rely on one of my back-up plans. Haha!"

Venelana narrowed her eyes. "Don't tell me you were planning on interfering too?"

"Not… _officially_." The younger man said coyly. "Oh, don't be so upset Mother. Even if I'm a Devil King, I cannot help but lend my aid to my younger Sister every now and then."

Venelana sighed. "You inherited your Father's laid-back attitude, Sirzechs. Really now, you're making me feel silly for even worry about this."

"Not at all. While I disagree with the decision, I know it wasn't as if you had ill intentions." The younger man said. "But, perhaps we could allow them to enjoy their youth for just a little while longer. If the Red Dragon Emperor has appeared, and if he has come to our site, then it's only a matter of time."

This man, Sirzechs Lucifer nee Gremory, the Crimson Satan, one of the Four Great Devil Kings, son of Zeoticus and Venelana Gremory, and older brother of Rias Gremory, did not show a trouble expression very often, but when he did, it usually meant it was no joking matter.

"Very true." Grayfia, his Queen, agreed. "It's only a matter of time, presuming it hasn't happened already."

"Yes." Zeoticus nodded grimly. "If the Red one has appeared, it's only a matter of time before he meets the White one."

"So." Sirzechs said, lightening the mood with a smile as he raised his glass. "For now, let them enjoy peace."

Zeoticus and Venelana conjured up their own glasses out of thin air, followed by a bottle of fine wine produced from a pocket dimension which then hovered above their glasses, opening and filling them up to the top.

They clicked their glasses against their son's.

"To Rias' first Rating Game victory!"

[To Rias!]

* * *

"Shirou! Chief!"

It was easy to find their fellow club members amidst the crowd.

A Miko, a loli, a blonde in a student uniform, and a handsome blonde with a smile you knew was for a woman were kind of hard to miss. They had been in the midst of speaking to some elegantly-dressed Devil noble with hair tied into a ponytail, munching down on some High-Class cuisine with the grace of a ravenous predator…Who looked oddly familiar. It was an energetic conversation and they were all smiling joyfully as they saw the pair approach.

Akeno was the first one to step forward and greet them.

"Hey you two, what took you so long?"

They were all dressed fancier than usual, Kiba was wearing a black tuxedo like Shirou, expect with the tie and all the buttons, Koneko was wearing a little turquoise dress, and Akeno was wearing a traditional black kimono. Asia was wearing her student uniform as it was the fanciest thing she hide.

Rias smiled, glad to see they were enjoying themselves. "We were just having a conversation with my parents. They wanted to congratulate me on my first victory and they were also looking forward to meeting Shirou as well."

"That was mostly your Father though," Shirou noted. "Your Mom was more pissed about getting stuck with damage control, and you froze up like a deer in the headlights when you saw her."

It was even harder for most of the others to miss how Rias' face redder when Shirou brought up her weakness at keeping her composure when it comes to her Mother. Three of the members of the group had knowing smiles on their faces, understanding full well for themselves how scary Venelana could be. Asia, on the other hand, looked simply unaware.

Still, Asia couldn't help but feel pleased with the fact that Shirou made his presence. "Shirou-san, I'm glad to see you're all better!"

"Yep." Shirou agreed, flexing his arm. "All I really needed was some rest, now I'm back to 100% and ready blow doors down."

"Well, given our recent victory, let's hope that time comes after we've all had some real rest." Kiba said. "After the fight we all had, it would be nice to have a little peace."

"…I don't see that happening." Koneko said, munching on something small, blue, and crumbly like a cake or crack. Shirou had no idea what it was. "Things always seem to get chaotic on our turf. We'll probably end up in another fight sooner or later."

"But, next time we'll be prepared." Akeno said. "Our fight against Raiser has shown us that we have a long way to go before we make to the big leagues, so we just have to get stronger than we were before."

"What? Speak for yourselves." Shirou retorted. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mind trying the Official Rating Game next time." Shirou then closed his eyes and scratched the back of his neck. "Besides, why are you guys complaining when I did most of the work? I took out twelve of our fifteen opponents including the King, how many did you guys beat?"

Kiba and Koneko frowned at those words. "About that…" Kiba and Koneko looked a each other then turned to Shirou. "We're sorry."

"…Sorry."

Shirou blinked and stared blankly at them, not knowing what brought this on. "Sorry? For what?"

"Back in the Rating Game, we wanted to help bring victory for the Chief, but even though we used every bit of strength we had, we were so weak, we ended up being unable to accomplish a thing against Raiser, and in the end, we couldn't doing anything but rely on you and watch." Kiba had his head down in frustration. "Despite all our training, we contributed so little to the game, I'm sorry."

Koneko had the same expression, she clenched her fists upset.

Shirou shrugged. "Is that really what you think?"

Kiba looked at him seriously. "It is."

"You're worrying too much about all this." His response surprised them.

"What?"

Shirou sighed. "I mean, it's not like I was expecting much from you guys in the first place."

At that moment, Kiba and Koneko felt as though an arrow had just pierced both their self-esteem.

Rias placed a hand over her face, Akeno gave a nervous giggle and Asia gave Shirou a pouty expression.

"But." Shirou continued, getting their attention. "Saying you contributed little is something you're wrong about. After all, you two actually helped out a lot more than even I was expecting."

"What?" Kiba asked neither of them seemed to understand what he meant. "But all we did was defeat a Knight and Rook exclusively and we couldn't do anything against Raiser."

"True, there's no question about that, but even if you didn't stop Raiser, you did something more important. You shielded Rias." Shirou informed them, while surprised the others. "Think about it, if you two weren't there, Raiser would have roasted Rias before I even got there. But you two arrived before I did and defended her as hard as you could. And you bought enough time for me to finish the job."

The Knight and Rook knew he had a point, but they still didn't feel like it made them feel completely better. On a side note, they were a bit caught off-guard on the fact that it was Shirou trying to give them consolation.

"But doesn't that mean all we could do was buy some time?" Kiba pointed out. "As a Knight, I would've liked to do more."

"More?" Shirou asked raising a brow. "Kiba do you even know what a Knight is?"

Kiba's eyes widened in confusion. "What? Of course, I do."

"I don't think you do, otherwise you wouldn't be saying stuff like that."

"But, Shirou-kun—"

"Listen." Shirou cut him off. "I'm a Pawn, not just that I'm eight Pawns, so it's my job to cover our entire front line, I accept that because it's what a Pawn does, so tell me what's you're job." He didn't wait for either of them to answer. "It's obvious, the job of a Knight and Rook is to safeguard the King, no matter what. You two my not think they amount to the same thing, that means a lot when the King is in danger like that last game. So why would you want to do more when you did exactly what you were always trying to do? You protected the King."

Shirou was trying to talk with the same charisma he saw from Zeoticus, hoping it would help ease their negative thoughts, the same way it worked from him.

And fortunately it was working, both Kiba and Koneko couldn't help but have a smile appear on their faces. It was as if Shirou had reminded them of something so obvious that they somehow forgot. They knew he was right, from the very start what they wanted was to fight for Rias, and they would gladly put themselves in the line of fire to defend her. Even if they couldn't stop Raiser, the fact that they could protect her, something that lead them to victory, was a fact they could take Pride in.

It wasn't just the two of them, Rias, Asia, and Akeno were also impressed by how Shirou was able to help lift their spirits and how he was able to see things from a perspective that made them feel like they were all important factors playing in their victory. They half-expected someone as Prideful as him to just brush it off as no big deal. And yet, the fact that he actually gave praise to someone else was a welcoming change for them, since he didn't do it often, they knew it meant a lot.

"Shirou-kun." Kiba stepped forward, looking much happier than before. "Thank you, and I want you to know, I plan on becoming much stronger than my current-self so the next time we face a powerful obstacle, I promise my Sword will be there to help you fight."

Shirou smirked. "Don't get cocky, even if you get stronger, you're dreaming if you think I'll ever need your help."

There was the Prideful response they were waiting for.

But right now, it didn't bother them in the least.

Koneko then stepped closer and looked up at Shirou.

"…Sempai, you're almost cool." She said with a smile.

"Huh? What'd you mean almost?" Shirou asked, almost offended.

"Oh relax Big Bro," The familiar black-haired Devil "noble" chimed in. "See just means she see you in a new and positive light, but is too shy to say it straight out."

Koneko's eyes widened and a blush appeared on her face, before she glared at the black-haired girl. "…Not true."

Shirou paused suddenly, rewinding the conversation a bit and looking back at the girl who was among the rest of the club. "Wait…did you just say "Big Bro"?"

"I could call you Brotaku, or Bromo Arigato, or Bro-dere." The girl piped up.

Shirou stared intently for a second, comparing her well-groomed appearance and facial features to the mental image in his head. "Wait…Mika?" The first time, he said it with confusion. Then he said it again with surprise. "Mika!?" You're here!?"

"Yeah, of cour—" The unusually well-dressed girl paused. "You mean, you really didn't know it was me? I thought you were just messing with me!"

"How the Hell was I supposed to recognize it was you?" Shirou asked, genuinely shocked by what he was seeing. "You're clean and dressed like a normal person! Do you have any idea how unusual that is?"

"If that's your way of saying I look nice, then thank you."

"What are you even doing here? I would've thought you would have spent post-game curled up in your room, playing video games. You always said you hated "Gatherings for disgusting Normies"."

"They're Devils, not humans." Mika reasoned. "Totally different."

"How does that mean anything?"

"And they have yummy snacks! You were resting, so I had to find an alternate sustenance besides hospital food."

"You actually _ate_ hospital food? I can't stand that stuff."

"Well it was either that or good hungry, and I can't do that, Bro. I need food to power my brain, otherwise I can't enjoy my anime."

"There are other reasons not to starve besides brain power and anime!"

"Yeeeaahhhh well, those aren't reasons that matter to as much as the first two."

"You know what you are? You are impossible!"

"And you never change."

Over the course of their exchange, the members of the Gremory Peerage just watched, unable to get a word in edgewise. They couldn't tell if the mood was good or bad, knowing these two they were pretty sure whatever they thought would turn out to be wrong anyway.

Shirou sighed. "Well, whatever. I'm going to get some air."

And with that, he walked off with his hands in his pockets, heading to the nearest balcony.

"Shirou, wait up." Rias called out, walking off to follow after him.

"Well." Akeno said with a smile. She placed a hand on her cheek. "That turned out a lot better than I was expecting, he really does have a charming side to him. It kind of makes me want to tease him."

"I was wondering how he would respond." Kiba stated, "But it seems I was worrying for nothing, I'm glad I got to talk to him."

"…He's still a thug." Koneko said before smiling. "But, I'm glad he's like that."

"That's Big Bro for ya." Mika said, picking up more food to eat. "He's rough around the edges and never lets just _anybody_ get to close. But he's always good at making those who are close feel like their worth something big. Personally, even if I'm being biased, I'd say once you get to know him, it can get pretty hard _not_ to like him."

None of them replied to Mika's words, but they all knew, none of them would deny that claim.

* * *

Shirou walked through the doors to the balcony, taking a deep breath of the fresh outside air…

Well, fresh in relevance to the depths of Hell. With the convincing stars and Full Moon in the sky, it was almost impossible to tell everything was artificially-produced.

Shirou walked over to the railing, letting out a deep breath as he leaned his back against it.

He pulled a cardboard pack out of the lining of his blazer, flipping it open and pulling out a cigarette. Rias had been adamant about a search of his pockets. Little did she know that he had mastered magic to the extent that he could camouflage hidden pockets by melding the open end into the main part of the fabric.

The perfect compartment to store back up cigarettes.

He then reached into his other pocket and pulled out his lighter, having lit up his cigarette he helped himself and inhaled some of that good nicotine.

He felt calm for the first time tonight.

"Heh." Shirou looked out at the sky. "What a wild few weeks."

"Mind if I join you?" A woman's voice asked, not waiting for his response she stood beside him by the railing.

"Do what you like." Shirou replied, feeling nonchalant, leaning forward and breathing in more of his cigarette in silence, inhaling, and blowing out a big ring of smoke in the air. He followed by inhaling a large amount of air. He turned his head to face the person who apparently decided to enjoy the silence of the night in favour of the party. "Besides, I don't own the place, so it's not like I could just tell you to leave."

"True, but I personally would rather you stay." Rias' smile felt foreboding.

"Rias?" Shirou blinked, took another puff of smoke, and exhaled before turning to face her again. "Why'd you come?"

Rias waved her hand. "Don't worry, I won't complain about the smoking, It's a night of festivity. I might as well not turn this into an argument." She stared at him with a knowing look. "Besides, even if I told you to stop, you'd still smoke regardless and tell me not to order you around."

"Yeah, you're right about that." Shirou agreed, turning back and leaning against the railing.

Rias lifted herself up and sat on the railing beside him. "Aren't you going back inside to enjoy the party?"

"Nah, I'm done with all that," Shirou answered. "Hate to tell you this, but big gatherings just aren't my style. Truth be told, the only reason I came was 'cause you kept telling me you wanted me to meet your parents, and I did. Now that that's done I'll just finish up over here, then I'll head back and take my leave."

"Alright." Rias responded, giving Shirou yet another pause.

"Really… You're just okay with it…?" Shirou wondered raising a brow. "I figured you would tell me to stay? You would tell the whole, "It's proper for a servant to stay by their master at these gatherings", or something along those lines."

"No." Rias answered just as nonchalantly as before. "I don't want to force you to do anything you don't really want to do. The fact that you came here at all is more than enough. Besides, you've already done what I asked and meet my parents and helped lift the others spirits, so I don't really mind if you wish to leave at this point."

"Huh, that's new."

"And also." Rias said, turning to face Shirou with a positively glowing smile on her face. "I owe you one after all, you saved me Mr Hero."

Shirou looked down, "I'm no Hero."

"Well you are to me." Rias insisted. "And also…I wanted to ask you." She spoke nervously. "…About what we talked about before."

Shirou looked at her confused. "Hmm? Before when?"

"It's just…Before when you said we weren't friends." Rias reminded him. "Do you still feel that way now?"

 **Play OST The Seven Deadly Sins - pf adlib - 13 Taizai**

"…Oh." Shirou was silent for a moment. "Well back then, I said we weren't friends because we've never done things that would make us friends."

Rias had a sad smile. "Right, that's what you said."

"But."

Rias then stopped and turned to him.

"Back during the game, my opinion changed."

"It did?" Rias asked, unaware of the hopeful light that was in her eyes. "Why?"

"Because of what you did, back when I was trying to hold off Raiser's huge-ass fire attack that was going to incinerate everyone." Shirou reminded her. "While I was trying to push it back, you showed up and tried to help me."

"But, I hardly was able to help you at all." Rias pointed out, a little ashamed with herself. "And in the end, you didn't even need my help."

"True, you jumped in when you weren't needed, and you almost cost us the match, and you just made things harder for me." Shirou listed, each one felt like an arrow stabbing into Rias' self-esteem, making her more depressed. "But." That made her lookup. "That doesn't change the fact that you were willing to jump straight into an attack like that to help me, it would just be crazy to not be grateful for that."

Rias felt her face lit up again. "Ah, well I…Just wanted to help you, in any way I could."

"It was more than just trying to help." Shirou argued. "That was something not many people, if any at all would be willing to do for someone." Shirou then turned to her. "So right now, I don't mind being your friend."

Rias felt a her smile return to her only much brighter than before, she couldn't hold back her happiness, after all this was something she had wanted since the training camp and now it had finally happened. Her Pawn had finally accepted her friendship, before she was starting to worry it was something that would always be out of reach, so you can imagine how relieved those simple words had made her.

"Thank you, I'm glad you feel that way." Rias spoke, although her face soon became that of an expression that was unsure. "So then, do you mind if I ask you something."

Shirou puffed more smoke. "Might as well, what is it?"

"And, just so you know, you're free not to answer if you don't want to say." She noted.

Shirou raised a brow. "Okay, what is it?"

Rias looked somewhat hesitant, then sighed before asked. "I wanted to know, why do you dislike being call a Hero?"

Shirou's eyes widened as he was taken aback, he really wasn't expecting that question, but he knew he should have.

Shirou sighed. "I was wondering when someone would ask me that."

Rias had a upset expression, she felt she stepped on a landmine. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

Shirou brushed her off. "It's not that." He corrected her, "It's just, I was hoping I wouldn't have had to explain it." Shirou then dropped his cigarette and crushed it under his heel, he then looked at Rias seriously. "Rias, what do you think a Hero is?"

Now it was Rias' to be taken aback. "What?"

"For me, what made a Hero was something really simple." Shirou continued while looking out at the moon. "They turn despair into hope, they move forward with an unwavering conviction in their eyes, and no matter how bad things get, when they show up they make forget all about wanting to give up." He spoke in a gentle and warm voice as if he was remembering something personal to his heart.

Rias didn't say a word, she was too absorbed with Shirou's change in demeanor that was something she had never seen of him before. It was like the words he spoke were something he cherished.

But then his expression changed again, one where his eyes looked down and he was remembering something he regretted. "But I… I'm just someone who was drowning in despair and I couldn't to a thing to change that."

Rias noticed his hand moved in a manner that seemed automatic (It was as if it was moving unconsciously), and his hand gripped his torso, while he had a pained expression on his face.

Rias couldn't help but ask. "Does it have something to do with your scars?"

Though she asked, she fully expected him not to answer.

"Yeah."

That was why she was surprised when she heard that response.

"I have a bit of trouble remembering all the details, but I still remember every bit of pain I felt back then." It was as if just remembering brought him pain. "I lost everything back then, that's why I can't call myself a Hero and why I'll deny it if anyone says otherwise because if I were a Hero I should've been able to do something… Anything."

Shirou stopped when he felt a slender pair of arms wrap around his neck, pulling him in and hugging his face against two plump, soft, marshmallowy-feeling objects.

Rias embraced him gently, smiling at Shirou, with an expression that radiated warmth like a beam of sunlight. "Shirou, you've gone through some much, it's more than any person should have to bear. But please understand, even if you don't believe it to be true, you are a Hero. To me and so many others. The Hero you described, in my opinion, describes you perfectly."

Shirou's expression slightly lifted, as if he didn't understand what she meant.

"Remember, you always followed the path you believed in, with a conviction that never wavered in the least, when we were facing insurmountable odds and felt we couldn't win, once you appeared we all were able to regain our faith that the battle would turn in our favour, and even in the darkest depths of despair when I believed we couldn't defeat Raiser, you showed me that it was still possible. You turned my despair into hope. Shirou, you are the Hero you described, and you may not believe that you are but I do. Shirou, you are a Hero."

Shirou just froze. He didn't know what to say, what could he say? No one had ever spoken to him in such a manner before, no one had ever said such things, And he didn't know why, but her words were having an effect on him. He could feel his emotions surfacing like a calming wave, as if he was waiting so long for someone to say something like that to him, but now that they had he didn't know how he was supposed to react.

Though he hid these emotions behind a smile.

Shirou removed himself from her embrace. "You don't have to butter me up so much."

That smile.

It was gentle…Happy.

So pure…and corruptible.

Perhaps it was her baser Devil instincts driving her to give in to her desires, but when Rias saw that bright look of hope on her Pawn's face, she felt her heart skip several beats in rapid succession. She had seen less purity in ANGELS. For all his bluster, his temper and his abrasive edges, Rias held no doubt in her heart that she was peering into Shirou's deepest character.

That smile…it was beautiful.

It even filled Rias with a sense of mourning that it was not a sight she could behold very often.

Still, it was something very precious. Something she wanted to protect-

No. Something she _would_ protect with her very life.

She wanted to be the one to give this child, her Hero, many smiles, smiles even brighter than this one. To erase the pain of his scars.

That was the promise she made to herself.

 **Music Off**

"Rias." Shirou got her attention. "Everything okay? You've been spacing out for a little while."

"Oh, I was just thinking," Rias blushed, trying to think of an excuse at the moment, then something came to her mind. "Thinking about what my Brother was planning in case we lost." She quickly changed the subject.

"Your Brother?" Shirou asked, tilting his head. "What'd he plan on doing?"

Rias' smiled turned into an amused one. "Grayfia told me about it yesterday, turns out if we lost, he would have made up an excuse as to why I would be late to the engagement party. Then was going to give me a Griffon and told me to make a run for it."

Shirou snorted, almost laughing. "What? Ha, I thought he was on board with the engagement?"

Rias shook her head. "Yes well, officially he was because as a Devil King he couldn't interfere. So he planned on interfering unofficially, and he planned on hiding his involvement too."

Shirou burst out laughing. "Hahahahahaha~! Classic! My opinion of this guy has gone way up! And I've never even seen him!"

Rias then had a somewhat annoyed expression. "He's always been like this, I appreciate the fact that he was willing to lend me his aid, but he needs to remember he's the Great Devil Lucifer, he can't keep acting in such a manner."

"I think you're missing to point." Shirou said, causing Rias to turn to him. "Even if he's Lucifer now, he was your Brother first, of course, he would be looking out for you." He then smiled again. "It'd be weird if he wasn't."

Rias knew he was talking from experience, considering he was also a Big Brother of a Little Sister. Still, it made her happy he was trying to cheer her up. "I suppose you have a point."

Shirou shrugged. "Come on, let's go back inside.

* * *

As Shirou and Rias walked back in the banquette hall. They approached the rest of the Occult Research Club.

"Hey, guys." Shirou greeted. "Anything happen while I was out?"

"Well, Mika just finished clearing the entire dessert table." Kiba answered.

And just like he said the entire dessert table was filled empty plates and crumbs. Mika herself, however, didn't seem to gain a pound, if you can believe it.

"Rias, there you are!" A calm, almost authoritative voice called out as the owner approached them, the members of Rias' Peerage turned to see. "I was hoping I could see you."

It was the first time Shirou ever felt envy over another man's body.

Shirou was hardly a slouch when it came to training, and his body was almost always in peak condition. Toned, athletic, attractive, but never ripped like the young man standing before him. It was like comparing a nice car to a large tank.

He had the appearance of a handsome looking young man with black hair that was well-brushed. Violet eyes that looked oddly familiar. And he dressed in a black and white nobleman attire that looked very High-Class, coupled with a large cape around his shoulders that was the same shade of white as Zeoticus' suit.

However, his aura was different from any other Pure-Blood Devil had encountered up till that point. They all radiated some form of overwhelming or oppressive presence as a result of their magical traits inherited due to their bloodlines, but this man was different. His power did not seem to have a magical source. Shirou felt his presence, but his power was more external than internal. In that form of his laid a mastery of one's own body could only be obtained through what must have years of intense training. His power was not a result of his authority rather, his authority was a result of his power. He gave off a presence that welcomed all opposition with the promise of crushing them entirely.

It was a hard feeling for Shirou to put into words, but when he looked upon the young man, he felt a hint of intimidation. He felt nervous or cautious about an enemy before, but this feeling was totally different.

Curiosity.

It wasn't that Shirou was afraid of him per-say. But rather curious of his power…Yet, at the same time, he felt as if there would be no greater thrill than attempting to challenge and surmounting it. The idea of battling someone so strong topped any satisfaction he would have obtained from fighting Raiser again or even Lord Gremory.

Rias smiled, happily returning his greeting. "It's good to see you again, Sairaorg."

The now named Sairaorg nodded, stopping in front of them. He then turned to the staring Silver-haired Devil. "And hello to you as well, Shirou Tsukiharu."

Shirou was about to respond, but the youth's words took him aback.

"You know who I am?"

"Many people watched your battle against Raiser. You, who have only been a Devil for a little more than a month, managed to bring a Pure-Blood a Phenex at that to his knees in defeat. For beings of Pride like Devils, that was a special sight." He said. He laughed. "You wouldn't believe how much my Father was outraged by your victory! I bet his screams of fury could be heard from the next territory over!"

From the way it was worded, Shirou would have thought that this was a bad thing, but the young man in front of him seemed even more impressed by it. Shirou found him to be a welcome change compared to the rest of the uptight nobles here.

"Ah, I should probably introduce you two." Rias said, stepping forward. "Shirou, this is Sairaorg Bael, my cousin. Sairaorg, this is Shirou, my Pawn."

"You're related?" Shirou raised a brow. "But you don't look anything like each other, in fact you couldn't be any more different." Shirou extended his hand. "Well, for what its worth, it's really good to meet you Sairaorg."

"Likewise."

As the two men shook hands, Rias could only gawk. "Wait…"Good to meet you"?" He kept his distance from me when _we_ first meet! He was never _this_ friendly!"

"Did you try approaching him like a normal person?" Mika suggested, turning to her King.

Rias poked her fingers together, looking down. "…Nooooo."

Mika turned back to them. "Well look again 'cause there's more to it than that." Rias directed her sight to the two youths who were currently shaking hands. "Look carefully and you'll see it…Even though their shaking hands, they're really analyzing each other."

Rias looked back at the two, and she had saw that which she had missed before.

How tightly their hands clasped one another, as if they were trying to break the others hand.

The piercing gazes, as if to test the others mettle.

Their bodies tensed as if they were waiting for one to throw the first punch.

It wasn't hesitation or caution though.

It was _anticipation_.

Just looking at the two, Rias realized there was a reason they got along so well:

They were both battle-maniacs!

Shirou earnestly wanted to fight Sairaorg and Sairaorg wanted to test the reincarnated Devil upstart. It was a bond only two people with perfectly matching tastes could have ever formed. In any other scenario or setting, they probably would have already started exchanging blows.

But then…

CRASH!

"WHAT'D YOU SAY ABOUT MY BRO, YOU RAT BASTARD!? I'LL DESTROY YOU!"

"BRING IT ON, BITCH!"

Over to the side, Mika was seen at a stand-off with an unrecognized Devil who had lots of white magic-like tattoos on his face and on his upper body. He has green hair that stands on its end and matching eyes. He also has pointed ears. He is also wearing a yellow and black attire that seemed more rough compared to what everyone else at this gathering was wearing, along with ornaments on his pants as that resembled chains. Both of them were radiating thick demonic power.

"What the actual Hell is going on!?" Shirou asked stepping up to the two of them. Mika immediately went over to him.

In a second, she was clinging to his waist.

"Big Bro, this guy was calling you names and so I started a fight with him."

Shirou raised a brow. "I think you left out some details."

"So." A rugged voice spoke with a hostile tone."I take it this little shit right here is your Brother."

"And who the Hell are you?" Shirou asked, not liking this guys attitude. "Got something you want to say?"

The thug looking noble sneered. "I was just saying how, bitches like her could use a good drilling."

You could almost hear Shirou's knuckles crack in that instant. "What?"

"If she's not with you, why not hand her over to me? I know a few good way to shut her trap." He reached out—

"Don't you dare lay your hands on my Sister." Shirou ordered in a tone that wasn't playing around, while he grabbed the other Devil's wrist, squeezing it tightly enough to leave behind marks.

The green-haired Devil glared and gather demonic power into his fist, and thus broke out of Shirou's grasp. "Don't you dare talk down to me, you Lowborn scum!" He growled indignantly. "I am Zephyrdor Glasya-Labolas! The younger Brother of the Devil King Asmodeus, and I demand your respect!"

"Are you kidding?" Shirou asked, not having this. "You must be stupider than you look if you think anybody would respect you after that."

This time, it looked like they were going to fight.

"Both of you cease your squabbling at once!" Rias barked. "This is a gathering of many noble Devils!" Rias turned to Zephyrdor. "Your attitude as well as your actions reflect poorly on your family, Zephyrdor."

"Oh, I'm getting a lecture from the disgrace of the Gremory family who had to rely on a Dragon to solve her problems?"

Rias narrowed her eyes. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"We've all watched the tapes, and I have to say, I'm not impressed." Zephyrdor said dismissively. "In the end, all you losers just sat back and watched, whining and crying like a bunch of bitches! The future of the Gremory family must really be in jeopardy if its heir weeps over pathetic trash like a lizard and a runt!"

[Huh!?]

It was odd…like synergy between the two siblings.

Simultaneously, then turned to Zephyrdor, both their fists clenched wanting to punch his face in the face.

"I'm grateful for the show we got of your bare skin, but it's pathetic when you show such a filthy appearance! And with the engagement to the Phenex up in flames, it looks like the Gremory are without a groom to fill that virgin hole of yours." Zephyrdor taunted, placing his hand beneath Rias' chin to force her to look at him. "If you want, the Glasya-Labolas family wouldn't mind setting us up, I'll rock your world—"

SMACK!

The sound echoed throughout the entire room, silencing what few were not already focused on the spectacle. They gawked at the nerve the Crimson-haired girl, who had brought her hand across the face of the Glasya-Labolas problem child. The servants of both sides stood at attention, their hands reaching for their respective weapons as if a war would break out any second.

"Don't ever touch me with those vulgar hands of yours ever again!" Rias spat, her eyes beginning to glow with suppressed fury. "And don't ever call my servants "trash" again! Shirou and Mika are worth more than thousands of you! They are Proud members of my clan, as are Kiba, Koneko, Asia, and Akeno! Insulting them is tantamount to insulting my Father, Lord Gremory himself! Anyone who hurts them _is my enemy_!"

Zephyrdor touched the red mark Rias had left on his face, his shock quickly dissolving into an unbridled rage.

"What makes you think a slut like you can lay your hands on a member of Glasya-Labolas and get away with it!?" Zephyrdor increased the amount of Demonic power surrounding his fist. "I'll kill you, bitch!"

Time seemed to slow down.

Rias raised her hands to conjure a barrier, the rest of her Peerage moved to begin the conflict.

"I think you're forgetting something." Were the words Rias heard, surprised as she was dragged back by her shoulders.

She saw Shirou rush forward—

CRACK!

-and swung his fist faster than Zephyrdor, punching him in the face and knocking him back a few feet.

It looked like Zephyrdor was going to hit Shirou, but he was able to swiftly dodged just before the moment of contact and shift to the side, though only those with a trained eye would have been able to see it. Shirou's fist moved in for a punch, the instant he saw an opening.

"First Raiser, then you…" Shirou spoke as he summoned his Boosted Gear over his left arm. "What is it with you noblemen assholes that can't wait to get your ass kicked by me?"

Zephyrdor grit his teeth, backing away in surprise before looking down at the droplets of blood that fell from his nose. Granted, it was a small amount of blood and he had worse before, but he was bruised and injured first nonetheless. This was not what caught his attention.

It was the look in the Silver-haired boy's eyes.

Defiant; burning more brightly than any raging tempest of fire and stronger than any steel.

"Bastard." Zephyrdor sneered. "You think you can take on a noble like me?"

Shirou scoffed. "Unlike you, I can actually back up my words."

Zephyrdor stood his ground in front of Shirou, a look of rage more violent than before on his face. "You think you can mess with ME lizard?!" He reached out grabbing Shirou by the collar, the high school delinquent not so much as flinching as he met Zephyrdor's gaze. "I don't give a shit what cheap trick you used defeat Raiser! Odds are those sell-outs forsook their family honor to preserve good ties with the Gremory!"

"We won fair and square." Rias retorted. "Each and every one of us trained our hardest and bet all our Pride on the outcome! Our result was achieved by our own hands!"

"Or so you claim." Zephyrdor said before turning to the crowd gathering around them, "But do any of us really know what was going on behind the scenes? Doesn't the outcome seem a little too bizarre? A newcomer taking on a pro and winning? And the fact that he's already thrown a match or two in the past seems pretty suspicious!"

Shirou took a minute to process it. Then it hit him.

Zephyrdor was going beyond calling them weak. He was calling the "Frauds". Even if he couldn't prove it, he could muddy the waters enough to get people to start whispering. The whispers would turn into rumours, the rumours would turn into "common knowledge" that would spread throughout the Underworld, causing the Gremory family to be associated with tricksters and cheaters.

Shirou narrowed his eyes and pushed Zephyrdor off of him. "Why are we even debating about this? If you really don't believe it, then maybe I should give you a demonstration?"

Shirou raised his gauntlet.

 **[EXPLOSION!]**

 **Play OST Shokugeki No Soma - Dictator Of The Kitchen**

Unknown to most of them, Shirou was quietly Boosting his power from the moment he saw Zephyrdor in case a fight broke out, though the number of Boosts was less than the amount he used on Raiser. Thanks to the upgrade to Second Liberation, he actually had even greater power compared to then.

Zephyrdor let his Demonic power flare-up. "Fine, I'll just beat the shit outta—"

SSHHIILLCCCKKK!

Before Zephyrdor could finish, Shirou appeared right in front of him and punched his right arm out, connecting to Zephyrdor's outstretched arm the was about to fire a spell. The result was Zephyrdor's arm was broken on impact, the sound of his bone-breaking echoed for everyone to hear and his arm right up to his elbow was bending in the wrong direction. His demonic power quickly went out and the pain hit him like a lightning bolt.

"AAAAAUUGGGHHHH—"

 _"Fast."_ Sairaorg thought while watching.

He didn't even get to finish screaming in pain though as Shirou didn't stop there. He spun his body and raised up his left leg above his head before bringing it down like a hammer on Zephyrdor's head with a mighty axe kick.

SLAM!

While it couldn't possibly be a good sign, Zephyrdor could almost feel his brain rattle after getting hit. He soon noticed himself losing control of his motor functions and his body falling to the ground. He hit the floor with a thud. Zephyrdor felt himself having trouble even moving his fingers and yet, fortunately (or some might argue, unfortunately) His nerve system still worked so he could still feel the pain.

SMASH!

Shirou finished things up by stepping his heel hard on Zephyrdor's head, he bent his knee and brought his arm down to his knee cap while resting his chin on it. He had a smirk on his face that carried the unsurpassable Pride only Shirou was capable of.

"Really, you were talking crap about us when that's all you got." Shirou taunted. "Guess our win was legit, or you're a loser who can't beat a sell-out."

Zephyrdor looked up at him from the floor, a burning hatred in his eyes.

"W-What the hell are you?" Zephyrdor asked with a cough.

Shirou's smirk grew. "I am what you dread. But people call me the Red Dragon Emperor." Shirou leaned in closer. "Call me lizard again and you lose the other arm."

In truth Shirou knew Zephyrdor wasn't all talk, when he was hitting him he felt like he was hitting a wall of concrete and even he couldn't deny that he had a decent amount of Demonic power. If Shirou hadn't used Explosion this would've been a tough fight, however with the power of Explosion he was at a level where Zephyrdor was no match from him just as he wanted.

Those observing were also surprised.

Kiba was wide-eyed. _"Shirou-kun's speed has somehow increased even greater than from the game."_

Rias couldn't hide her shock. _"Zephyrdor may be vulgar, but his stats in terms of power alone surpass Akeno, Diodora, Seekvaira, and even myself. And yet, Shirou…"_

Another person was thinking about what she saw, she is a beautiful young woman in her late teens, with long blonde hair with a slight hint of light green and pink eyes. She wears glasses, has speckles, and has a cold, sharp gaze. She is wearing a blue robe that exposed very little skin. She wears clothes that are very fitting for female nobles that have a flashy design to them, with accessories that have the Agares seal on them which give off a posh vibe. Instead of a dress, she wears a miniskirt and high boots which are matched by her posh clothing.

She is Seekvaira Agares.

She watched, calculating what she saw. _"He played that smart, he could tell at first glance Zephyrdor is a magic-user with overwhelming power so he moved in while his guard was down and neutralized one of his enemy's arms, both stopping the spell and giving him the opportunity for a consecutive strike. He felt Zephyrdor would be troublesome after feeling his fist connect and decided to end it immediately, thus his second blow aimed for the brain stem and rattled his motor functions placing Zephyrdor in a state where he is completely at his mercy."_ Seekvaira smiled. _"Shirou Tsukiharu, you're smarter than you look."_

Sairaorg didn't say anything, he just looked with an excited look on his face while clenching his fist.

Shirou continued standing on Zephyrdor's head. "Too bad, even if you're a Pure-Breed, barking dogs are no match for a Dragon."

The observing crowd breathed out a heavy gasp.

A servant of the Gremory family had struck down a High-Class Devil outside a Rating Game, an act that was generally forbidden among most circles.

Zephyrdor's Peerage were the first to break out of their funk and regain enough sense to realize their master need assistance. They were as equally shady looking as their master.

There was seven of them: Three Pawns, Two Rooks, A Knight, and A Bishop.

"Master Zephyrdor!"

"You Bastard!"

They charged forward preparing to attack Shirou with weapons that seemed reminiscent to the weapons used by the delinquents he usually fought at home.

Shirou who wasn't in the mood to deal with weaklings simply raised his Boosted Gear to summon and conjure a magic-circle as lightning gathered around his fingertips.

 **[TRANSFER!]**

"CANNON FODDER SHOULD SHUT THE FUCK UP!" All of his power transferred to his Demonic power and thus it super-charged his spell to an incredible level of intensity.

 _ **DRAGON THUNDER STREAM!**_

Shirou unleashed his spell and a giant blast of yellow lightning with blue sparks around it shot out from the circle, it carried an overwhelming amount of magic and tore through anything that was in its path, like the roar of a thunderstorm. The spell hit the members of Zephyrdor's Peerage and resulted in a huge explosion of lightning that lit up the entire hall.

BOOOOOOOOM!

 **Music Off**

Zephyrdor was strong. Shirou didn't say it outright, but Shirou knew that when compared to his own normal state Zephyrdor could hold his own if he had the chance.

The underlings, on the other hand, were basically featherweights by comparison. They clearly had far less training than what Raiser gave his own servants. They were doubtfully more than a cheer squad for their master or for shows of force. As the dust settled, they laid there on the floor, both unconscious and paralyzed by the lightning.

Everyone in attendance was now completely blown away by this new display of power shown to them by the Silver-haired Low-Class Devil.

Now one could hide their shock and for some, fear.

Akeno was staring amazedly. _"Even if I used all my magic, I couldn't produce a lightning spell of that magnitude. It's almost unbelievable."_

Rias had her eyes glued to Shirou, not even sure how to react. _"That power…Ultimate-Class? No, not yet. But it was at the highest level of a High-Class Devil. How can he have wielded such magic? Has the evolution of his Sacred Gear given him this power? Or…Is it Shirou himself?"_

Sairaorg simply had his battle-maniac grin. _"Not bad, he's almost as strong as me."_

Mika grinned. "Heh, this must be one of those, "Make one move and you die" situations."

Shirou then put his arm down then turned his attention back to Zephyrdor. He removed his foot from his head and grabbed his neck, lifting him in the air like a rag doll.

"I believe I have your attention." Shirou spoke while all eyes were on him. "You think we didn't earn our win? I know it might be hard to understand, considering you Silver-spooned knaves never had to put effort into anything your whole lives, but this is how _I_ fight, by putting 110% into every match I'm in. If you ever doubt my victory then I'll be more than happy to prove it to you. Just don't blame me when you get crushed under my foot like a bug."

Most of the High-Class nobles grit their teeth and glared at him. They were outraged by the nerve, disrespect and audacity that Shirou was showing them. "How dare a Low-Class Devil speak down to us", it what they would've wanted to say. But while they were too ashamed to admit it, they couldn't deny the fact that most of them were intimidated by Shirou at this point.

Zephyrdor maybe a young Devil, but he was still the heir to a Devil King's family. And yet Shirou not only easily defeated him, but vanquished his entire Peerage with ONE spell. That was enough to give them second thoughts.

Shirou could see it on their faces and was satisfied. "No volunteers? Too bad." Shirou turned back to Zephyrdor. "Oh and for the record, I don't give a shit who your Brother is, because you aren't your Brother. You just some Goblin-faced poser."

Zephyrdor grit his teeth. "You son of a bitch."

Shirou narrowed his eyes at that and strengthened his grip around Zephyrdor's neck.

"My Mother was a saint." Shirou spoke with venom.

"I think you've made your point." A familiar calm voice piped up as a firm hand placed itself on Shirou's shoulder.

Shirou turned and saw Sairaorg beside him.

He could see it in the eyes of the muscular youth, he was telling Shirou to end it. Truth be told Shirou was already planning to, he got what he wanted and shut everyone up. And knowing the Sairaorg had the same thought was just something that made he sure. He Zephyrdor out of his grasp and into the pile of his fallen servants like a sack of flour.

"Yeah, I know." Shirou replied.

"Shirou!" Rias spoke up, walking up to him. "You didn't have to get involved like that, you don't have enough status to risk getting into fights with other High-Class Devils, you could get into a lot of trouble for that."

"Why? He started the fight, I just ended it." Shirou reasoned. "Besides, I told you before it's the Pawns job to be the first one to fight, if anyone tries something they have to go through me first."

Rias shook her head. "Yes but—"

"You." Rias was interrupted as they all looked, they saw Zephyrdor barely standing, with one arm clenching his other arm that was broken, and a look of rage that hadn't subsided. "We aren't done."

Shirou was about the raise his arm when Sairaorg stopped him, giving him a look that said "let me handle this", Shirou decided to give him a nod and stepped back.

"I think this joke has gone on long enough." Sairaorg said, his expression absolutely serious. "Don't you think Zephyrdor?"

Zephyrdor sneered at Sairaorg's appearance. "Like I'm going to be lectured by the Bael reject! Why are you getting in my way!?"

"Why." Sairaorg repeated, unconcerned with Zephyrdor's insult. "Because this is a party to celebrate the victory earned by my cousin and her Peerage. And yet you not only tried to smear her name and accomplishment but you also go on to pick a fight with her Pawn. One in which you already lost. So back down already, before you make yourself look even worse."

"Screw you!" Zephyrdor screeched, not backing down. "I can still beat that punk!"

"With one arm?" Sairaorg asked.

Zephyrdor was taken aback.

"You have neither the use of your arm or your Peerage." The Great King pointed out. "If you're saying you can still beat him regardless…Then you're even stronger than I am."

Zephyrdor grit his teeth overwhelmed with rage. Yet still had enough control to know when he had been beaten.

He turned around and stood in front of his Peerage, then summoned a teleportation magic-circle to leave along with them. He turned around and gave Shirou one final death glare before dissolving into particles of light and vanishing.

The situation had ended.

Shirou turned to Sairaorg. "I didn't really need your help back there." He then had a small smile. "But I appreciate it anyway."

Sairaorg returned the smile. "It was my pleasure, and don't worry, nobody really likes that guy so you won't get in much trouble for starting trouble with him."

"Good to know."

Their conversation soon ceased when a started then impressed look crossed Sairaorg's face. He turned away from Shirou then knelt on the ground.

At first, Shirou thought he had dropped something. Then he realized that others were beginning to mimic that gesture. Shirou looked off to the side to see that Rias had also knelt.

That was what really sold it to Shirou. He turned, finding himself face-to-face with a handsome, Crimson haired man who bore a striking resemblance to the only other two people he knew with Crimson hair. He was wearing a very long purple cape that went down to the floor with massive black and gold lined pauldrons and a black and white striped suit beneath. Shirou noticed that despite the tense atmosphere, this man had a lighthearted air around him.

Shirou decided to face this new development the same way he did with everything else in life.

With a smile and greeting.

"So, you must be Rias' Brother." Shirou guessed, walking up to him, eliciting a round of gasps from the crowd around him. "I've gotta say, you really do look just like her, expect more manly, obviously."

An even louder round of gasps sounded amidst the silence. None gawked more than Rias herself.

"That is the Maou Lucifer you are speaking too! So show respect!"

"Learn your place, commoner!"

Shirou was about to shut them up when someone beat him to it. Sirzechs raised his hand to silence the crowd while giving them a lot that promised pain if they spoke up again. And with that, the silence returned.

Shirou saw that and looked genuinely impressed. "Nice, so you can look intimidating too."

"You're quite strange." He said. "Most people standing where you are now would be kneeling on the ground. You do know the position I hold in the Devil society, right?"

"I know alright." Shirou confirmed. "You're one of the Four Satans, one of the people who replaced the original Kings of the Underworld when they died. And you're the strongest of the four."

"You know this, and yet you don't kneel?" He did not seem insulted, just curious. "It is common for those, regardless of Class, to provide a gesture of respect towards their leadership."

"That may be true for most people, but regardless of respect I don't kneel to anyone, even a King." Shirou explained, his words casual. "I find that kneeling to someone simply because of their position is a generalized way of thinking, and so no matter my status or position I'll stand up and look at them rather than kneel on the ground and bow to them, that's just who I am."

And yet, the Maou Lucifer's expression did not shift in the slightest. If anything, he just seemed more interested. "That's a perspective on things I haven't seen in quite a while. And yet I can't say I completely disagree with it."

No one gasped this time, not wanting to risk upsetting the Crimson Satan, but still, they were shocked. By all right, they assumed the Low-Class Devil in front of their King would have been reduced to a bloody pile of mush by now, yet inside they were having a conversation as casual as two men discussing the weather.

"You know, you're a lot easier to talk to then I was expecting." Shirou admitted. "I half-expected you would blast me with magic for not kneeling to you."

Sirzechs waved his hand with an amused smile. "Oh, I would never dream of doing that. You're my younger Sister's Pawn after all and the one who defeated Raiser. The truth is I wanted to congratulate you on your victory against Raiser. It wasn't just your power that I found impressive, your willpower and boundless tenacity against overwhelming odds is something you rarely see in young Devils nowadays, the fact is I was completely overwhelmed by your performance. You were incredible."

Now everyone was gawking wider than anything previously this night. The fact that someone like Sirzechs Lucifer was giving praise of that calibre was something none of them ever thought they'd hear. Even Rias herself was speechless.

"Still, I must ask you, the way you speak to me, would I be right to assume you hold no respect for me?"

"Honestly, right now." Shirou shrugged. "That's right I don't."

And cue the mind-blown looks on everyone's face.

One guy even fainted.

The two men speaking ignored that.

"May I ask why?"

"Because I don't know you."

Sirzechs raised a brow. "Is that the only reason?"

Shirou nodded. "Its reason enough for me. For me, the people I respect are the people I know and believe are deserving of it. But right now, you're a stranger to me that I literally meet a minute ago. I can't very well just give my respect to a stranger and the only thing I know about you is your title of Lucifer. And the way I see it, respecting someone based only on their titles or position is the sign of ignorance."

Sirzechs processed these words, a small smile appearing on his face. "You have a rather eloquent why of thinking."

Shirou smiled back. "First time anyone's ever told me that."

"But, regardless of how you feel about me, I want you to know I was actually glad I could meet you tonight."

Shirou shrugged. "You're pretty good at flattering people aren't you? Still, thanks."

Sirzechs then extended his hand towards Shirou. Shirou figured his was gesturing him to shake his hand. Seeing nothing wrong Shirou accepted his handshake.

That's when he felt it.

The moment Shirou had touched his hand he felt his magical aura hit him.

It hit Shirou harder than any blow he had ever felt. It was a weight that laid upon his body and soul.

He could feel himself inwardly tremble, his body threating to crack and break apart under the immense pressure radiating from the man in front of him.

This was a show of power…This was a Devil King's aura. Not even Sairaorg's presence could compare. If Sairaorg's power was a mountain compared to an anthill, then this man's power was comparable to an entire planet.

Shirou knew that if this man wanted to, he could have turned him into a greasy puddle.

-No.

He could have done so much more. He could have erased any shred of evidence that the individual known as "Shirou Tsukiharu" ever existed.

This moment, this second which lasted an eternity, was perhaps the closest taste of death Shirou had ever experienced.

And yet, despite all that, Shirou couldn't wipe away the look of complete and utter excitement on his face.

Never in his life had Shirou have felt such an impossibly powerful force, it was absolutely unbelievable. Even in his wildest dreams he never thought he would meet someone this strong. And yet all Shirou could think about was who excited he was at the thought of transcending this power.

It was like an experienced mountain climber who had found the worlds highest and deadliest mountain.

Or a beast hunter who had come face-to-face with the worlds largest monster.

It was in every fibre of his nature to challenge this insurmountable force in front of him and strive to surmount it.

On the outside though, they seemed like everything was normal. Their handshake soon ended.

"Well now, it's been a long time since someone's been able to send a chill down my spine." Shirou said, his smirk reappearing. "I think I might like you, tell what was your name, Maou?"

"Sirzechs Lucifer." He answered.

"Sirzechs Lucifer, I'll make an effort to remember that one."

"Then If you don't mind, could you tell me your name, Dragon user-kun?" Sirzechs requested.

Shirou placed a hand on his side. "The names Shirou Tsukiharu, commit it to memory."

BEEP! BEEP!

Their conversation was soon interrupted by the sound of a timer going off.

Everyone looked around, wondering where it was coming from and who it belonged to. Though it completely killed the mood.

"Sorry, that mine." Shiro spoke up, reaching into his pocket and taking out his phone. After looking at it for a few minutes he put it away. "Sorry to tell you this, but I have to go."

Everyone, including Sirzechs, was surprised by this sudden decision that seemed to come out of nowhere. "You're leaving."

Shirou nodded. "Yeah, truth is I have a prior engagement tonight and I need to get to it."

"I see." Sirzechs seemed a bit disappointed. "It's rather a shame though, I had hoped we could've talked for a bit longer."

"You and me both." Shirou agreed. "I actually like talking to you, but it can't be helped. Maybe next time."

Shirou then walked past the Devil King and made his way towards the main exit which was the same gate he entered from. He ignored the dirty looks some nobles were giving him believing it to be no different from having a tree glare at you. He then stopped at the large doors about to walk out.

"Wait!" Sirzechs called out.

Shirou before his hand reached the door, he turned around to face the Crimson Lucifer.

"Before you go, I would like for you to know this." Sirzechs told him. "After your performance in the Rating Game, many people will have their attention on you, like me there were many who were impressed by your abilities and have high expectations for you. In the future there will be a great number of Devils will be hoping to see a great performance from you in the Games."

If it were someone else Shirou might have said "I don't fight for your entertainment", or something along those lines. But when facing the man in front of him he just smiled and said. "Then I hope you look forward to it, Mr Sirzechs Lucifer."

And with those words, Shirou opened the entrance doors and walked out the banquette hall, the sounds of the doors closing echoed throughout the entire room.

And with that, almost everyone there breathed a sigh of relief, glad beyond words that the extremely tense situation was finally over. Some of them even felt their knees give out and kneeled on the floor. No one said a word, except for one person who just kept her eyes on the entrance doors that Shirou walked out of.

"Shame. He was my ride." Mika said.

* * *

Shirou was walking down the same hallway he walked past before coming to the banquette, though this time he was alone.

After decided he was far enough he stopped walking.

.

.

.

And at that moment, the excitement he was holding in since he felt Sirzechs aura finally came out. His face was a face that completely trumped any look he had before. It was a look that would put most battle-maniacs to shame. If others saw it they would even believe it was the look of a man who was getting ready to kill someone.

"So that was Lucifer, the Strongest Devil in the world, hahaha! He was even better than I imagined, too think he was THAT strong, it's insane." Shirou placed his hand over his chest, his heart was beating so fast it felt like it would leap out of his chest. "And yet, it's amazing. It's so soon, I never thought I would meet him here."

Shirou then slowly calmed down, his heart-rate relaxing, his facial expression changing into a look of determination. A fire burning in his eyes like a flame that was scorching at the top of a mountain, that could be seen through a blizzard. And more unbreakable than pure titanium. "And I can't wait to beat him."

Shirou knew it would take an astronomical amount of training, but he would do it, he knew he could.

He would surpass Lucifer.

He had been exposed to the harsh reality, the true difference in power between a servant and a Devil King, he had met people he could never even hope to beat at his current level. Many would have simply fallen into despair, their fragile reality shattered by a power infinitely greater than themselves.

But Shirou's eyes had no trance of despair what so ever, only the resolve to face the hurricane.

The encounter with Sirzechs Lucifer had only pushed him to strive to even greater realms of power.

Shirou then took out his phone and dialled a number. "Hey, yeah it's over…Good, tell her I'll be there in a few minutes, I just need to get changed…Yeah, see you there."

After his conversation was over he hung up and drew a teleportation circle. "I take back what I said before, I'm glad I came."

And with that, Shirou had left the Underworld.

* * *

In a solitary (yet refined and _very_ expensive) room, Sirzechs Lucifer was sitting down with Grayfia by his side.

"He truly is a fascinating young man, isn't he?" The Maou asked his maid.

"I suppose that would be one way of putting it." Grayfia replied.

"I must admit, he complete acted beyond my expectations," Sirzechs smiled brightly. "My sister really knows how to pick them."

"My Lord, are you sure it is wise to take things so lightly?" Grayfia asked, not sharing his lighthearted attitude. "You know as well as I do the danger he has put himself in."

"Yes, whether he intended to or not, he has placed himself in a rather difficult position. In his very short debut he had defeat the said-to-be invincible Raiser Phenex, gained the open respect of the Bael family heir, gained the attention of the heir of the Agares family, and singlehanded overcame the heir to the Glasya-Labolas family and his Peerage. I fear that it won't just be other Factions, there will be many powers in the Underworld that will have their eyes on him, and not in a positive way."

"Both the fact that his power is growing an incredible rate and the fact that he is completely unafraid to challenge those with a higher position in society has made him the target of many nobles who will no doubt be displeased with this new turn of events." Grayfia said grimly. "The current nobility hate Lower-Ranking Devils whose power they can't control and those who don't immediately bow before them, from what happened tonight it's obvious there is already a target on his back."

"He is…Unique. Unafraid to speak his mind, even to those of a higher class. He doesn't allow himself to conform to a standard and instead remains true to himself, which is something I haven't seen in many young Devils." Sirzechs elaborated. "Those of our kind who have clung to their grudges are consumed by their own greed and hatred while those from the newer generation have fallen into a state of stagnation. Even the few that escape either of these patterns, such as the heirs of the Bael, Agares, and Sitri families show reservation. But that single boy, now stands as a new factor in this current generation that has the potential to completely overturn the Underworld in a new direction, people are bound to take it seriously. Those with deep roots in Devil society would be at the top of that list."

"Do you mean…Will they come after him as well?"

"Not right now. The Red Dragon Emperor has potential, but still not someone Zekram would take as a serious threat to the purists' supremacy. But their descendants may consider retaliation for his insult. The way I see it, that boy created some gusts of wind, but those gusts will form winds of change that will create great changes beyond expectation."

"But what if he gets swallowed by the hurricane?"

"I admit, I was concerned about that myself." Sirzechs then smiled without worry. "So I tested him myself, when I shook his hand I had him feel my aura, I put him to the test to see if he could overcome it. And yet, his resolve didn't waver at all, in fact, I think it just motivated him to challenge the hurricane further. After seeing that look in his eyes I knew, when the time comes, he'll be more than ready."

"He will still earn enemies."

"Yes, but with it, he will also earn the admiration and respect of others, even some who otherwise disagree with his sentiments.

"…Do you think he will be able to survive?" Grayfia asked, still feeling concerned. "Greater men than he have been crushed by the darkness in our world. He isn't nearly as prepared either."

"You might be right, but I still have faith." Sirzechs answered. "After all, he is Rias' Pawn, he is the Red Dragon Emperor, and he is the son of that woman."

The boy was a catalyst for change.

Only time would tell if it was for the better or the worse.

* * *

Somewhere in the Human world. Inside an expensive hotel luxury suite sat a middle-aged looking man who had the aura of someone who was completely at peace with the world.

He was sitting on a couch watching something on a large flat-screen TV.

It was a recording of the Rating Game between the Gremory and Phenex Peerages that took place the other day.

The Rating Game was a very popular sport, not only for Devils but many beings from other Factions, even outside the Trinity Factions watched and enjoyed them. And this one, in particular, gained a large amount of viewers.

The person watching seemed to take great interest in the scenes involving Shirou and looked surprised and then serious when he saw the final blow.

Or rather the black aura and golden eyes Shirou had right before the final blow.

"I see, so he's finally awakened." The man spoke to no one. "Then it seems it's finally time for me to fulfil my promise." He sighed. "Right, Mikoto?"

* * *

Elsewhere in the human world. At the town of Kuoh in a common karaoke box were three friends who were having fun that night.

It was the trio of Shirou Tsukiharu, Ren Todo and Aika Kiryuu.

Shirou was now dressed in casual attire. He apparently planned a get together with his two friends to enjoy a much smaller celebration, one that was far more to his liking.

He and Aika sat in their seats while Ren was singing his song.

 _~Don't stop believin'_  
 _Hold on to the feelin'_  
 _Streetlights, people ~_

 _~Don't stop believin'_  
 _Hold on_  
 _Streetlights, people ~_

 _~Don't stop believin'_  
 _Hold on to the feelin'_  
 _Streetlights, people~_

"Yeah! Sing it, Ren!" Aika cheered.

"Wahoo!" Shirou cheered.

Ren sat down with them, taking a sip of one of the soft drinks on the table. "Hah, this is always fun."

Shirou shrugged. "Well, it's not booze, but it'll do."

"You don't have to drink every time you go out, you know." Aika pointed out.

"True, but it's more fun." Shirou argued.

"Still, I'm glad you're back." Aika smiled. "What kind of Occult Research Club goes on a two-week camping trip?"

Neither Shirou nor Ren told Aika where they went for obvious reasons and just told her the club went camping.

"Its Rias Gremory's club remember?" Ren noted. "Rich people do stuff like that all the time."

"True." Aika then had her perverted gaze towards Shirou. "So tell me, with you being under the same roof as all those ladies, did you happen to pop anyone's cheery on that trip?"

Shirou just took a sip of his drink. "I won't dignify that with a response."

"You just did." Ren pointed out.

They all laughed. Shirou felt this was a much better celebration gathering then that stuffy, uptight one in the Underworld.

As Ren got ready to do another song. He looked to see Shirou and Aika looked in deep, lasting, kissing session. Ren raised a brow.

"Wait? I thought you two broke up?" Ren questioned.

They both stopped and looked at him.

"Oh we did, this is just an occasional relief." Shirou explained.

"Turns out, it's less trouble and more fun to be "friends with benefits", then being in a relationship." Aika explained.

"Ah." Ren nodded, now getting it. "Carry on."

And with that, they continued kissing.

They all enjoyed their night of celebration and all was right with the world.

It was just another day for the life of Shirou Tsukiharu.

* * *

 **End Credits - Death Note Musical - We All Need A Hero**

 **{When I get afraid}**

 **{And all hope is gone}**

 **{I reach for your hand}**

 **{And I go on}**

 **{'Cause someone like you}**

 **{Who's scared, but won't run}**

 **{Is standing his ground for everyone}**

 **{Because the best of us}**

 **{Can come from anyplace}**

 **{Helping the rest of us}**

 **{To face what we must face}**

 **{We all need a hero}**

 **{Somebody to help us to be brave}**

 **{We all need a hero}**

 **{And someone he can save}**

 **{We all need a hero}**

 **{Believing that deep inside}**

 **{We'll find there is}**

 **{Some kind of hero, too}**

 **{Like the one I found in you}**

 **{And so, win or lose}**

 **{You fight the good fight}**

 **{As long as you try with all your might}**

 **{A heart that is strong}**

 **{A heart that is true}**

 **{A heart that will risk it all to do}**

 **{Whatever he can do}**

 **{When something must be done}**

 **{Showing us we can do}**

 **{The same thing one by one}**

 **{We all need a hero}**

 **{To rush in and try to save the day}**

 **{We all need a hero}**

 **{For dragons yet to slay}**

 **{We all need a hero}**

 **{To show us that deep inside}**

 **{We'll find there lives}**

 **{A kind of hero, too}**

 **{Like the one I found in you}**

 **{A dreamer chasing dreams}**

 **{A light that's always burning bright}**

 **{Chasing the dark from the night}**

 **{We all need a hero}**

 **{Somebody to help us to be brave}**

 **{We all need a hero}**

 **{And causes lost to save}**

 **{We all need a hero}**

 **{Believing that deep inside}**

 **{We'll find there is}**

 **{Some kind of hero, too}**

 **{Like the one I found in you}**

 **{Like the one I found in you}**

* * *

 **And that's the chapter, and finally, mercifully, I've finished this chapter. You would not believe how long this took me. And it's way longer then even I was expecting to be, I just had some much I needed to fit in.**

 **Now to start things off, I had Shirou meet both of Rias' parents and show how they both feel about the engagement being ruined. While her Dad is pretty cool about it, her Mom is annoyed because she has to clean things up, and she's the stricter one of the two so of course she wouldn't just let Rias think everything is okay, though not even she can hide the fact that she's at least happy Rias is better of.**

 **And as always, Shirou won't take crap from anyone, not even her.**

 **Then Rias finally asked the big question on Shirou and Hero's, Shirou explained the why, but he didn't explain the details on what happened to think that why, though it will be explained later. And Rias tells him straight out, he is a Hero, 'cause let's face it he is. I figured it was a good time for him to finally accept the fact that people will consider him one even if he doesn't. And he doesn't really hate that fact.**

 **Next Shirou met the other young Devils, meeting Sairaorg went as good as you would expect. Meeting Zephyrdor went as bad as you would expect. And as for why Shirou beat him so easily at this point in time, well Zephyrdor may be strong but he's careless and arrogant. Someone like that couldn't possibly keep up with Shirou who is deadly when you let your guard down. Especially with his new strength, he got from Second Liberation.**

 **By the way, the Boosted Gear is going to stay that way. I don't know why in the anime it only stayed like that twice for a short amount of time and then never appeared again, but In my story, the upgrade stays.**

 **Finally, he meets Sirzechs. For me this was how it went, Shirou has only heard of him but never meet him, thus he would decide how he felt about him afterwards instead of passing judgement on someone he hardly knows. And Sirzechs wanted to see the kind of person Shirou was. As you saw, they both were impressed by what they had seen.**

 **At the ending, who was that person watching the game? What promise was he talking about? How do he and Sirzechs know about Shirou's Mother? And who was she anyway?**

 **All those questions will be answered in the near future.**

 **And as a final scene, I showed Shirou and his friends partying because, why not he deserves to really enjoy a party after all that.**

 **Anyway, this marks the end of the Phenex Arc, and just so you all know, updates won't be once a week anymore, they won't be that much longer await. But I need to work on my other stories and look for a job so, I'm going to be a lot busier from now on. Hope you all understand.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more then be sure to leave a review if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	17. Downtime and Weird Devils

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. And for this one, before I decided that before I start The next arc of this story I would feature the OVA's and specials in this story as well because personally I find them enjoyable and too hilarious for me to pass up. Enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Downtime and Weird Devils**

* * *

 _~We're Going To The Beach~_

Today was an ordinary day in the High School known as Kuoh Academy. A few days after the Rating Game with Phenex and the Afterparty, things had pretty much returned to normal. With there being a few things different, one thing was the relationship between Shirou and Rias had improved since then. Shirou tried to brush it off but he wasn't stupid despite what other's might think. He could tell Rias was acting a lot more affectionate around him, he didn't know why, but he decided to not bring it up as it didn't get far enough for it to bother him…Yet.

Speaking of Rias, she had called the members of her Peerage to come to the clubroom so that they could all get ready for a trip.

In order to celebrate their victory of the Rating Game, Rias had set up a trip to the beach for all of them, while Mika didn't want to go out in the hot sun, she couldn't resist doing something that was to her the equivalent of a 'Beach Episode', in her own words.

Everyone had already arrived at the clubroom expect Shirou, who was currently walking down the hallway of the second floor of the Old School building. As he turned around the last corner he had reached the door to the Occult Research Club meeting room. Outside the door, standing by the hallway was the only other male in the club, Kiba Yuuto. Kiba saw Shirou approach and greeted him with a smile.

"Good morning, Shirou-kun." Kiba greeted.

Shirou stopped in front of him and nodded, returning the greeting. "Sup."

Shirou then turned to look at the door. "So, why are you just standing here in the hall?" He asked.

"Oh, well all the girls are changing into their swimsuits in the clubroom, so we need to wait out here until they're done." Kiba explained.

If you placed an ordinary Second-Year High School student in this situation, they would no doubt be tempted to pick inside that room. The room filled with, the Two Great Ladies of Kuoh Rias Gremory and Akeno Himejima, The School loli mascot Koneko Toujo, the attractive foreign transfer student Asia Argento, and to a lesser extent the attractive shut-in Mika Tsukiharu. And all of them were changing into swimsuits.

Luckily though, the Pawn and Knight duo were anything but ordinary Second-Year High School students.

Neither one of them had any desire to sneak a peek. Kiba was a Knight not just in position, but in mindset as well, thus his chivalrous personality would never even think of intentionally walking in on a female who was changing. The thought never even crossed his mind.

And as for Shirou. To him, there was nothing in there that made it even a little worth it for him. Why he wouldn't sneak a look at Asia and Mika was something that didn't even require explanation, and for the rest, it was nothing he hadn't already seen, and that was literal in Rias' case. So there wasn't a reason for him to desire a peek inside.

Thus the two just chatted amongst themselves while waiting.

"So tell, where exactly are we going?" Shirou asked, "Did Rias rent out a beach for this trip or something?"

Kiba smiled and shook his head. "Actually, I heard that was her original idea, but after decided that doing that would be more trouble than its worth, the Chief simply decided to just teleport us to an empty island with a beach on it."

"Seriously?" Shirou raised a brow. "Rias of all people is being responsible with money?"

Kiba blinked. "Is that really surprising to you."

"Yes." Shirou simply replied.

After waiting for a while, Shirou started to look impatient and knocked on the door. "Hey! hurry up already!"

{Sorry Shirou, we'll be done soon!}

Rias responded through the door.

After a little bit longer, Shirou knocked again. "Are ya done yet?"

{Yeah Big Bro, you can come in now~}

Shirou narrowed his eyes, suspicious of his sister's tone. "Asia, are you actually done?"

{N-No, we're still getting changed!}

Asia answered through the door, it was obvious from her tone that she was nervous and flustered.

{What?! So you believe Asia, but not me?!}

Mika questioned, not happy.

"No, I just know that it's literally impossible for Asia to not tell me the truth." Shirou replied.

{Tch, That's true. And you Asia, you ruined it! You should have played along!}

{B-B-But Mika-san, if I did then Shirou would have walked in and seen all of us Naked.}

{That's the point! The protagonist walking in on the heroines while they're changing is a time-honored classic, _especially_ in the beach episode.}

{Uh, I don't really understand what you mean—}

"Will you two just hurry up and change!" Shirou yelled through the door. Getting really annoyed at their conversation, and that fact that he could perfectly hear them.

Kiba standing beside him just stayed silent and had a worried smile, feeling awkward at the current situation.

* * *

Later, after everyone had gotten changed, they had all teleported to the beach.

The beach in question was on a small island surrounded by the sea. Covering the island was tall trees and grass, creating a forest that went from the centre of the island all the way to the rest of the small patch of land, barring the edges. At the end of the on the shores was a sandy beach that was filled with soft clean sand and got plenty of nice refreshing sunlight, it also had a wonderful and clear view of the crystal clear ocean and the deep, cloudless, blue sky. The perfect day to be on the beach.

At the shore, a Crimson magic-circle for teleportation appeared and out from a flash of light was the Gremory Peerage.

First Rias who was wearing a white buttoned-up shirt with all the buttons undone except for the top buttons around her chest, and a purple mini-skirt.

Next was Koneko who was wearing a white one-piece swimsuit and driving goggles on her head, with a pink inflatable ring and her waist.

After her was Asia who was wearing a green hoodie that went down to her waist, covering her swimsuit and a straw hat on her head.

Then Akeno who was simply wearing a long white T-shirt that went down to her knees, covering her swimsuit.

Finally was Mika who was wearing a purple hoodie that went down to her waist while the hood was over her head, and a white mini-skirt.

Behind them were Kiba and Shirou.

And behind them was a pile of luggage.

Shirou was wearing a black T-shirt and an open dark blue hoodie, and white shorts that reached down to knees.

Kiba simply wore a black Speedo.

Shirou looked at him with half-lidded eyes. "Really dude, a Speedo?"

Kiba blinked. "Why? What's wrong with it?" He asked, genuinely confused.

Shirou sighed. "You know, just… Just forget I said anything." He then walked off.

"This place is nice, isn't it?" Akeno asked, smiling happily.

"The sun is so bright." Asia said, also smiling.

"Let's all enjoy ourselves to the fullest!" Rias said, excited.

They all got ready as Akeno took off her shirt and revealed her swimsuit, it was a lime green string bikini, it was also extremely revealing as the strings were as thin as shoe strings and the only thing covering her top were two small triangles covering her nipples, and the bottoms only had a small triangle that covered her nether region, while the backside was covered by nothing but a barely noticeable short string. It basically left little to the imagination.

Asia lowered the zipper for her hoodie and revealed her swimsuit, it was a light blue one-piece revolve swimsuit which had the chest area tied together by a string and the side held together by straps, while both the back and stomach were uncovered, the fabric hugged the skin tightly.

Then Rias removed her skirt and took off her shirt and revealed her swimsuit, her's was the most revealing. It was a purple one-piece that was shaped like a "V" covering only her areola and her genitalia, everything else was completely exposed. She might as well have been fully nude, actually, that might have been less erotic.

After that all the girls, besides Mika enjoyed themselves on the beach, having fun in the sun. They all jumped into the ocean and either did some swimming, splashed each other, or in Koneko's case stayed on her inflated ring and floated around while shooting her water gun at others.

Shirou and Kiba simply sat on the shore watching, while sitting on a beach blanket next to the luggage, though after a little bit Kiba decided to go enjoy himself as well, Shirou stayed. And Mika sat next to him on her own beach blanket while staring at the girls and forming her hands to act as a camera.

"Aren't you going to join them?" Shirou asked his sister.

"Aren't you?" Mika replied.

Shirou shook his head. "I'm not into swimming, truth be told I would've rather spent this time training."

Mika nodded. "Yep, that's a typical response from you." She turned back to the girls. "As for me, I just want to enjoy the sights, this is just like a real beach episode. Look at them, not just Rias and Akeno, but even Asia is wearing a super erotic swimsuit, just for today. Somehow, it would be less sexual if they were just Naked."

Shirou didn't argue with that, though he wasn't as excited.

"And take a look at Rias." Mika pointed to their club President. "Call you even call that a swimsuit, and yet it fits so well with her character without being forced."

"That's 'cause she's an exhibitionist." Shirou noted.

Later, Rias was laying on her beach blanket sunbathing, laying on her back before she sat up and looked to Shirou with a lustful gaze.

"Shirou, could you put some suntan lotion on me?" Rias requested.

Mika quickly looked excited. _"Oh~ I was waiting for this, the best part of every beach episode."_ She thought.

Shirou sighed and got up. "Fine, might as well." He walked over to her.

"So, which side are we working on first?" Shirou asked, holding a bottle of lotion.

"We'll start with the back." Rias said with a smile, as she laid down on her front. "Make sure you don't miss a spot."

"Whatever, let's get your hair out of the way." Shirou said, grabbing hold of her Crimson locks and moving them to the side. He took the container of suntan lotion and spread it across his hands. Then he spread his hands over Rias' back, applying the lotion over her skin.

"Aaahn!" Rias cried out. "That was cold!" She complained.

"Quit whining." Shirou said, unconcerned. "It's supposed to be cold, now hold still."

Shirou continued spreading lotion on her back, while Mika looked on, feeling a bit unsatisfied.

 _"I don't know, it's good but, a little too tame."_ She then looked over to Asia and had a mischievous look in her eyes. _"That might do it."_

"Hey Asia," Mika called out. "Mind coming over, I need some help."

Asia looked over to her and run to approach the girl. "Okay! I'm coming!"

 _"Now to add my "speciality"."_ Mika then held up one of her fingers and add a tiny bit of magic to it.

At that moment, a small bit of sand was hit by a heat spell and that caused the sand to harden into a thin spot of glass, which was directly in the path that Asia was running in. As she made her way forward, she ended up stepping on the patch of glass and being the klutz she is she naturally slipped on it and lost her footing.

Unfortunately for her, she was only a step or two from Shirou and Rias before she stepped on the magic made glass and, her loss of balance while running caused her to trip in their direction, because of that she ended up stepping on the bottle of suntan lotion which only made things worse as it caused her to fall forward. She was about to fall right on top of them.

Shirou being able to notice in time, saw Asia on a collision course from him and the Crimson-haired girl right beneath him.

"Nope." Using his speed, Shirou jumped out of the way in time to avoid her.

Rias, however, was not so lucky. And before they knew it, they ended up tangled in a pile with lotion getting on both of them.

"Aaahn! Asia? What are you doing here?!" Rias cried out confused.

"I-I'm sorry, Chief." Asia said both apologetic and just as uncomfortable as Rias. "I tripped."

Rias tries to turn her body over, but the slipperiness of the lotion causes her and Asia to slip around and fall on each other. Asia tries to get up by holding on to something, but she ends up on top Rias' breast, because of the lotion her hands slip off and she accidentally pushed her arm over her swimsuit and knocked her breast out in the open and trips forward, her head now stuck between both of Rias' breasts.

"A-Asia! Wait this isn't working!" Rias said, trying to help push her off. But sadly, with the lotion covering her body to, she also slipped forward and grabbed onto something for support, that something was the top of Asia's swimsuit, this didn't stop her fall and she fell down taking the top of Asia's swimsuit with her and exposing Asia's bare torso to the open.

"Iyyyaaaa!" Asia cried out as she quickly covered her bare breasts with her hands, but this caused her too lose her balance again and fall atop Rias once again.

At the side, Shirou and Mika just stood there watching this display of pure carnage between their King and Bishop. While Shirou just face-palmed at what he was seeing, Mika just grinned satisfied.

 _"That was way more than what I was expecting."_ Mika thought. _"But I'm not complaining."_

"Hey." She was taken out of her thoughts when she heard her Brother's voice addressing her. "Why do I get the feeling you're responsible for this?"

Mika quickly put on an innocent expression. "I have no idea what you're talking about Dearest Brother."

Shirou just sighed. "Well, whatever. I don't really care even though I asked."

Both Asia and Rias, now topless and covered in white slimy lotion tried getting up one more time and just fell over again.

"Best. Beach episode. Ever." Mika said.

* * *

 _~Private Training With Akeno-Sensei~_

It was day time on a Sunday in Kuoh, Shirou was only in the Occult Research Club meeting room waiting for Akeno.

After a bit of waiting, Akeno showed up and was now standing in front of him, and in front of Rias' desk.

"Ara, Ara, Ufufuf. Today, I'll give you some special private training, Shirou-kun." Akeno said excited, with her usual Akeno smile.

Shirou just nodded. "Yeah well, I only came because you said we'd do some training, but what's this "special" part about?" He asked.

"Oh, dear …Are you saying you don't want to work with me?" Akeno asked, leaning forward with a smile, putting emphasis on her boobs.

Shirou knew she was trying to get a rise out of him and didn't play along.

"Don't put words in my mouth." He responded. "I just want to know what kind of training this is going to be."

"Ufufufufu." Akeno looked amused. "Don't worry, we're just going to do some magic training. I was amazed by your magic in the Rating Game and thought I should help you improve it."

"Alright then," Shirou accepted her answer. "Where do we start."

Ten minutes later, Shirou was sitting on the couch still in his Student Uniform while Akeno was in the bathroom behind the changing curtain.

"Are you sure you don't want to get changed?" Akeno asked behind the curtain.

"I said no." Shirou replied. "What reason would I need to change into swimwear?"

"Suit yourself then." Akeno said as she walked out, wearing a thin white robe that barely stretched past the top of her hips, while her hair was tied upwards. "Just don't blame me if your clothes get wet."

Shirou's eyes widened at her attire. It was obvious from looking at her that she had nothing underneath that robe.

He quickly got a hold of himself. "So, um… Are starting with water magic or something?" He asked.

"Something like that." Akeno said cheerfully while pointing her finger upwards.

Shirou looked up to she the Gremory Peerage Queen had conjured a yellow magic-circle above their heads. Soon from the magic-circle came a downpour of water hit them both at full force.

Shirou was completely drenched and damp along with his uniform, he spat out some water from his mouth. "What was that for?"

The downpour ended and Akeno smiled. "This is water purification training."

"But we're Devils." Shirou pointed out. "What do we need to purify for?"

Shirou then took a good look at her and noticed her already barely covered robe was now completely see-through. The girl in question didn't seem to mind though.

"We purify our minds for meditation." Akeno explained. "Magic is the source of a strong mind after all."

Shirou groaned. "I guess that's true."

Akeno smiled and sat down in front of him and they both took a meditative pose, though Shirou was having trouble concentrating with Akeno so close to him practically Naked.

 _"How can she sit there so nonchalantly like that?"_ Shirou thought, looking uncomfortable. _"I'm starting to think she called me over here just to screw with me."_

"Oh, are you having trouble?" Akeno asked opening her eyes. She looked at his expression and started leaning forward. "You look so under the weather, maybe you need to perform mouth-to-mouth."

"No, no." Shirou held her back. "Trust me, that's the last thing I need right now."

"It's okay, I'll happily do this for my adorable Kouhai." Akeno then tried to plant her lips on Shirou's.

Shirou then held up his hand. "Okay, I've had enough." And with those words, a magic-circle appeared in his hand.

ZAP!

Shirou shot a lightning spell at Akeno and a bright yellow light could be seen from outside the clubroom windows and an electric sound could be heard. Back inside the clubroom Shirou was standing up and on the floor next to him was Akeno laying on her back, there were small sparks coming from her body as an after-effect of the spell and because the fabric of her robe was so thin, the spell shredded it to ashes, leaving Akeno completely nude.

"When I say no, then it's no." Shirou told her.

Akeno didn't respond as she just laid there with a large blush on her face, her body twitching like she was vibrating, and a soft moan escaping her mouth. "Aaahn!"

 _"Oh right, She's into S &M."_ Shirou thought, looking at her while raising a brow. _"Huh guess she's good at being both the S and the M."_

After a little while, Akeno awoke and entered the room while holding a small tray with a glass cup on it, the cup was filled with a white vanilla parfait with an orange slice on the side. Shirou was back on the couch, now dry.

"Sorry about that, I got a little carried away." Akeno said, setting the tray down on the table. "I made this for you to make up for it."

"You made this?" Shirou asked, pointing to the parfait.

He received a nod. "Please enjoy."

Shirou picked up the spoon at the side and said. "It'd be rude not to." He took the first bite and Akeno smiled.

"Truth is, I know it isn't much compared to what you can make." Akeno spoke, looking to the side. "Even the dessert dishes you made back at the training camp were better they any I could make. But, I still wanted you to enjoy my parfait since it's my favourite dessert."

Shirou put his spoon down and turned to face her. "Akeno." He addressed her.

"Yes?" She responded.

Shirou then smiled. "It's pretty good, and that's saying something coming from me."

Akeno felt her face blush and felt a good deal of happiness from his compliment. "Thank you, Shirou-kun."

"Oh and, Akeno." Shirou said.

"Yes, Shirou-kun." Akeno responded.

"Put some damn clothes on!" Shirou said annoyed.

Akeno got dressed after Shirou blow off her robe and was still Naked.

"Ufufufu." Akeno simply smiled.

* * *

 _~Koneko, A Little Bolder…Nya~_

It was evening in the Occult Research Club meeting room and Rias Gremory was enjoying a nice hot shower in the bathroom while in the clubroom, the only ones currently present were Asia and Koneko.

Koneko was sitting on one of the couches, munching on a bagel while Asia was serving tea. She poured some tea into a teacup and placed it on the table in front of Koneko.

"Here you go." Asia said, serving the tea.

"Oh, thank you." Koneko replied gratefully.

"It's nothing. Akeno-san taught me how to make tea yesterday. And I wanted someone to try it." Asia informed her, with a smile.

Koneko picked up the teacup and took a drink of the contents. After taking one sip though, at first, the young Rook narrowed her eyes, then looked confused, then finally she dozed off and fell into slumber.

At that point Rias walked out of the shower and into the clubroom, wearing only a towel around her body and using a second towel to dry her hair. She then looks around and seems confused about something. "Hmm? Asia, there was a cup of tea sitting here just before I got in the shower, where is it?"

"Oh! I just gave that tea to Koneko-chan." Asia answered turning to the sleeping Koneko.

"Eh?! B-But I cast a spell on that tea!" Rias blanched.

"Eh?!" Asia cried out surprised by this information.

Rias stares at the sleeping Koneko, inspecting for any changes, though she just laid there sleeping. "It doesn't seem like anything's wrong."

"What kind of spell was it?" Asia asked.

"It's a spell I was working on that alters a person's personality." Rias answered.

"Their personality?" Asia asked.

Soon Koneko stirred and opened her eyes and started to wake up, Rias and Asia immediately noticed and Asia leaned forward.

"How do you feel, Koneko-chan?" Asia asked.

"…" Koneko slowly turned her head and looked towards Asia. "…Asia-Sempai?"

"I'm sorry, but—"

"…Asia-Sempai." Koneko interrupted her. "As always, your breasts are beautiful, Nya."

"Huh?/Eh?" Both Rias and Asia were surprised by that random response.

Things didn't stop there. What happened next surprised everyone as Koneko sat up and positioned her hands as if she was preparing to grab something.

"Nya!" Koneko said with an excited look on her face.

"Nya?" Rias repeated, unsure of what was happening.

"I wish I were so "gifted"! Nya!" Koneko said diving towards Asia and rubbing her face against her chest. "Aaahn! Asia-Sempai, I've always wanted to try this, Nya!"

"Augh! Chief-san!" Asia cried out, as she was being groped.

"T-This must be…" Rias said, seriously worried while blushing. "Koneko's serious way of thinking has been reversed by the effects of the spell, and she's become perverted!"

"Asia-Sempai!" Koneko swooned, groping Asia's breasts.

"S-Stop that, Koneko!" Rias ordered.

Koneko looked at turned her attention to Rias. "Nya!" Rias looked worried and took a step back, Koneko approached her. "Chief! How's about you join in on the fun, Nya!"

"H-Hey, K-Koneko…" Rias tried to think of some way to stop her, but couldn't find the words.

This allowed Koneko to leap at her like and cat.

"Aaah!" Rias gasped as her towel was ripped off and Koneko pinned her to the floor completely Naked.

"I won't let you getaway! Nya!" Koneko swooned.

Asia stepped forward and tried to stop her. "Y-You mustn't do these naughty thin—"

She didn't get to finish as the petit White-haired girl slashed off the blonde's uniform with a speed that would make a Knight envious, this left Asia's clothes in pieces on the floor, her underwear included. Having left Asia Naked like her Chief, Koneko turned back to the Chief in question and continued to grope her.

"Chief!" Koneko swooned, a breast in each hand. "Hey Chief, how do you smell so good Nya?"

Asia looked towards Rias while covering herself embarrassed. "H-Hey, Chief, how do we stop Koneko-chan from being like this?" She whined.

"I must have mistakenly made the spell to powerful!" Rias cried out, upset. "With her incredible strength, there's no way for me to stop her!"

"W-What are we going to do!" Asia cried out, desperate.

"If I let this nymphomaniac out of this room, it would cause no end of troubles!" Rias noted while Koneko started rubbing her face against Rias' breasts. "For the time being, we'll have to handle her until the tea's effects wear o-Ahh!" She moaned when Koneko squeezed her nipple.

"'Handle her'?" Asia asked, not getting it.

"The two of us will have to keep her occupied here." Rias clarified.

"We have too?!" Asia responded, not liking that idea.

"Nya!" Koneko looked up at her, and Asia held up her hands in defence.

"I-I understand." Asia said quietly and nervous, understanding her situation. "Now, Koneko-chan let's just calm down and have some fun together."

"Nnyyyaa!" Koneko shot upwards excited and threw her arms in the air,

"Kyyaa!" Asia flinched afraid.

After a few seconds of silence, nothing happened.

Asia looked again and saw Konkeo just stood there.

"Nya." Koneko then simply pulled down her skirt and let it fall to the floor.

"Eh!" Asia cried out surprised.

"Koneko, what are you doing?!" Rias asked, on the floor covering herself while Koneko started undressing.

Koneko then turned to Rias and smiled. "Let's all take a shower together! Nya!" She suggested as she took off her shirt. Now in her underwear, which was white with light blue polka dots.

"Excuse me?!" Rias blanched.

Later, the three of them were in the shower together, Koneko was rubbing her face against Rias' breast. "Spending time with these beautiful Naked ladies is making my heart race! Nya!" She said, lustfully.

"Koneko-chan?" Asia said, only to have Koneko rub her face into her chest again. "Aaahhnn!"

"Sempai! Have some of this! Nya!" Koneko dived her head into her breasts.

"Don't do that! Stop!" Asia whined.

"Tr-Try to endure it, Asia." Rias said, only to have Koneko to turn her attention to her. "Mmmnnnaahh!"

Soon, things got too rough and Asia slipped and fell over. "Ahh!" She fell out of the shower and onto the floor.

"Asia-Sempai! Nya!" Koneko leapt out of the shower and towards Asia. This caused them to be locked in an embrace that knocked them forward, out of the bathroom and back into the clubroom.

"Koneko! Asia!" Rias called out worried, entering the clubroom herself.

"Chief! Nya!" Koneko got up and prepared to grope her again.

"W-What, Koneko!" Rias raised her hands defensively.

Koneko looked at Rias lustfully and started to approach. However, after taking one step forward, she froze and fell forward.

"Koneko!" Rias stepped forward and caught her in her arms before Koneko hit the floor. She then kneeled to the floor and placed Koneko's head on her lap.

"Is she okay?" Asia asked, as she got up and went over to them, worried for Koneko. "What happened?"

Rias placed her hand on the first-year's forehead and then breathed a sigh of relief. "She's fine, thankfully the spell finally wore off."

Asia looked relieved herself. "Thank goodness."

Just then, the sound of the handle turning was heard as the door to the clubroom was opened. In walked Shirou.

"Hey guys, I finished today's pact so—" Shirou just stopped after looking at what was in front of him.

Like a deer caught in the headlights, Asia and Rias froze now remembering the position they were in. Rias sitting her knees on the floor with a sleeping Koneko resting on her lap, both of whom were completely Naked. And Asia was standing next to the two of them, she herself just as exposed.

.

.

.

The amount of awkwardness in the room couldn't even be put into words.

"Ah, we—" Asia tried to say.

"I don't even want to know." Shirou cut her off, with half-lidded eyes. He then walked out of the room and shut the door.

After that Asia just crouched down with her hands trying to cover the shame on her face, Rias didn't even bother to hide the look on embarrassment.

"I am never trying that spell again." Rias whined to herself.

* * *

 _~Asia Transforms!~_

It was night time at the Tsukiharu residence and inside Shirou's room, he was seeing a very unusual sight in front of him.

It was Asia dressed as a classic style Japanese high school delinquent, completely with the all white-clothes and white long coat, the flu mask and pink eyeliner.

"Hey, hey, hey! I'm being bad here!" Asia proclaimed with narrowed eyes while in a crouched position.

"…" Shirou groaned. "Now, this never has a good answer but, what are you doing?"

"We-Well." Asia said, back in her usual nervous tone while standing up. "I'm trying to be a bad girl." She lowered her mask.

"You? Bad?" Shirou asked as if he heard someone say a fish was trying to fly. "What for?"

"Last night I was mulling things over and came to the conclusion that I must live as a proper Devil." Asia answered bashfully. "Being evil and callous."

Shirou looked at her bored. "And we'd you get that idea?"

"From this magazine." Asia said holding up a magazine with a person on the cover dressed the same as her.

Shirou snatches it from her hand. "You actually read this crap? This guy's a featherweight who wouldn't know evil if it punched him in the face."

"But it seemed so real." Asia argued. "So I tried dressing as the source material."

"Well cut it out. Besides, just because you're a Devil now doesn't mean you have to suddenly act differently." Shirou informed her.

"Bu-But you've been beating up other people, and constantly ditching school." Asia retorted. "And you break both the smoking and drinking law, all on a daily basis, aren't you doing you're best to be evil every day?"

Shirou waved her off. "Nah, I just do those for fun, and 'cause I like to." He then faced her. "Besides, I did those things even when I was Human."

"Eh? Well still, I've been trying my best to do bad things!" Asia said seriously.

"Yeah? And just what are these 'bad things' you've been doing?" Shirou asked, not taking her seriously.

"Um…Let's see." Asia thought back. "I could get up early and drink the milk delivered to the neighbour."

 _"That's more annoying than evil."_ Shirou thought.

"Or I might swap some shoes in the school shoe boxes." Asia suggested.

 _"And that sounds like something a kid would do."_ Shirou thought annoyed.

"And if someone drops their eraser, I could…I-Ignore it?" Asia then stopped and shrieked. "Oh my, what dreadful things am I thinking!?" She asked with tears in her eyes. "Lord, please forgive me! Augh!" She prayed before receiving damage.

"And now this is just lame." Shirou said, out loud this time.

Asia got back up. "But I'll give it my all and train hard! She said determinedly. "I'll become a great Devil!"

Later she appeared on Shirou's bed, having changed into a pink strapped dress that exposed some cleavage and ended at the mid-thigh, she assumed a sexy pose. She smiled at him and pulled down her dress slightly.

Shirou just stared at her and face-palmed. "What is that supposed to be?"

"Bu-But won't my womanly charms make you putty in my hands?" Asia asked.

"Do I look like the main character of some Rom-Com anime?" Shirou responded.

Shirou then leaned forward and flicked Asia's forehead.

"Ouch!" Asia cried out, placing a hand on her sore spot.

"Listen, just because we're Devils now doesn't mean we have to act differently." Shirou explained to her. "Instead of conforming to a standard, just do what you've been doing. You're already a different kind of Devil compared to the others personality-wise but you're just being true to yourself and there's no need to pretend your someone else. Just be a Devil like Asia Argento."

"Y-You really think so?" Asia asked, surprised.

"Of course I do," Shirou assured her. "Don't think too hard about it."

"Th-Thank you Shirou-san! I was wrong!" Asia said gratefully as she threw herself at him and embraced him.

"…Yeah great, now hurry up and lose the dress." Shirou said uncomfortably.

"Ah? Um, Okay." Asia said with a blush, she then started pulling the dress down and her chest was now out in the open.

Shirou then stopped her before it went further down. "No! I went change, not strip."

Asia realizing she misunderstood now blushed all over.

{Or you could do both~}

Mika said across the wall, in her room.

"Shut up, Mika." Shirou replied.

* * *

 _~I'm Harvesting Boobs~_

It was the middle of the night in Kuoh and in a quiet district filled with many abandon empty buildings, there were all sorts of creatures that could be lurking around in the dark, even Stray Devils. In this case, there was one, and he was currently being hunted down by the Gremory Peerage.

Inside an abandon apartment building, Shirou was chasing after a Stray Devil, unlike most Stray Devils this one still looked like a person rather than a monster.

The Stray ran through the hallway with Shirou not far behind, then he hid inside one of the doors to a room.

"Get back here!" Shirou followed him.

Shirou busted the door down but the Stray appeared right in front of him and tried to rush past him after giving him a shock of his sudden appearance. However, the Silver-haired Pawn easily reacted in time and grabbed him by the arm. The Stray Devil gasped.

Shirou smirked. "Think you can get the drop on me? Think again." He then punched out and hit the Stray Devil in the face.

The hit sent the Stray Devil flying back through the hallway and into a door at the end of the hallway, he door broke down once he made contact with it and he found himself on a metal staircase outside the building.

In a different part of the building Asia, Akeno and Koneko were dealing with the Stray Devil's familiar which was a large insect.

"Aaahh!" Asia cried out, flinching as the large bug was flying towards her.

"Asia-chan!" Akeno called out worried.

Koneko quickly ran up to Asia and stood in front of her defensively. However, once the insect familiar reached it her, it stopped and flew in front of her chest, this confused Koneko. Soon the insect flew past Koneko and turned its attention to Akeno, it flew towards her chest and started tapping itself against her breasts continuously.

"Ara, Ara~!" Akeno blushed while having her usual smile.

"Akeno-san!" Asia said concerned.

"Oh, dear. Why is it only gin after my breasts? Aaahn!" Akeno asked with a moan.

"W-Well your breasts are really conspicuous." Asia noted with a blush.

Koneko's eye twitched annoyed and she reached out her hand and grabbed the insect familiar.

"Oh my." Akeno said as she placed a hand by her mouth amused by what just happened.

Back at the staircase outside, the Stray Devil got up and now under the moonlight, his appearance could be seen. The Stray Devil had pale skin and White coloured hair that spikes upwards in two long prongs along with pointy ears. He was wearing a white dress shirt with a purple tie and black long pants, with black shoes, and a grey long coat.

Once he stood up, he shook off the damage from Shirou's punch, but then he could hear the sound of footsteps getting closer to him. He looked up to see walking down the staircase was Rias.

"Good evening, Stray Devil." Rias greeted with a cold smile, walking towards him. "We've received orders to put you down."

The Stray Devil looked worried, while Rias was walking down the staircase, from the lower stairs Mika and Kiba were walking up. The three of them stopped, surrounding him.

"Fleeing your master like an outlaw and running around, satisfying your own desires. That is a crime punishable by death." Rias proclaimed. "In the name of Lord Gremory, we will purge you."

Shirou then walks out from the broken door and corners the Stray Devil as well. "I don't know about the motive, but I'm all for killing you." Shirou cracked his fists.

Mika pointed her hand towards the Stray Devil. "And don't try to run, make one step and the landmine spell beneath you will go off."

The Stray looked down and saw he was standing on a magic-circle. He now he was trapped with no way to escape. Thus he fell to his knees in despair.

Rias looked satisfied. "Checkmate."

Mika narrowed her eyes and looked at her. "Why are you saying that when we did all the work?"

"She's right Rias, you did nothing." Shirou agreed with his sister.

"B-Because I'm the King, it's natural for me to say it." Rias defended.

Though the siblings didn't look convinced.

"Oh my, is it over already?" A voice asked, from behind Shirou. Shirou turned around to see Akeno and Koneko approach and join them on the staircase.

"Oh, it's you guys." Shirou said as they stood beside him.

"We're finished too, well-done everyone." Akeno informed them.

"This was really weak." Koneko referred to the insect familiar, she was holding. She threw the bug to the floor and it dissolved into nothing.

"A bug? that's disappointing." Mika said, unimpressed by the familiar.

"Why did this bug go after my breasts?" Akeno asked the Stray.

"It what?" Shirou asked, confused.

"Say what-now?" Mika asked, curious.

"Your breasts?" Rias asked, surprised.

"A perverted insect." Koneko said, irritated.

Soon they heard someone running, and looked to see Asia catch up to them,

"Everyone." Asia greeted while breathing slightly heavy.

"Asia, how are you tired already?" Shirou asked.

"I'm sorry," Asia then turned to Akeno and Koneko. "The two of them protected me."

Rias then approached the Stray Devil. "Well then Stray Devil, this is the end. Unless you wish to continue fighting, that is?"

"No, I surrender." The Stray stood up and held up his hands. "As expected, I'm no match for the daughter of the Gremory family."

"Again, she did nothing." Shirou pointed out.

"…I'm no match for the daughter of the Gremory family's servants?" The Stray attempted.

"Better, but it still feels like she's getting the credit." Mika pointed out.

The Stray Devil then turned back to Rias and started staring at her chest. "Heh, nice tits."

"Really, those are your last words?" Shirou asked with half-lidded eyes.

"Akeno. Restrain him, then send him to hell with a magic-circle." Rias ordered.

"Understood." Akeno responded.

"Wait, so we're not killing him?" Shirou asked.

Rias shook her head. "No, the higher-ups will decide his fate."

"But you said his punishment will be death." Mika noted. "Were you just trying to be dramatic?"

"That does sound like you." Shirou added annoyed.

"Anyway!" Rias said, looking away. "Akeno."

Akeno raised her hand up and gathered up a large amount of demonic power. "Ufufufu, it's more fun for me if you struggle~" Akeno said, getting into her sadist mode.

She then unleashed her demonic power and it wrapped around the Stray like a rope-net. Afterwards, the Gremory magic-circle appeared beneath him. Though he still looked confident.

"Let Hell decide what will be done with you." Rias said.

"Indeed. I only did what needed to be done." The Stray said with a smirk.

After which he disappeared, leaving everyone a bit confused by his words.

Later that night. Rias, Akeno and Shirou were inside a dimly light, research laboratory. It was filled with beakers and test-tubes with different coloured contents and large probes as well. It looked like a science lab, but it belonged to the Stray Devil they caught just a little while ago.

The three of them were investigating the place.

"It looks like a research laboratory." Akeno confirmed, "According to our information, some kind of experiments have been carried out here every single night."

"We'll send the important data to hell and destroy the rest." Rias decided.

"More importantly," Shirou spoke out, "If this has been happening every night, we are we just now hearing about this?"

Rias was quiet for a moment, then answered. "Because. We aren't really sure exactly what kind of experiments he was doing. It could have been anything."

* * *

The next day. At the Occult Research Club meeting room, Shirou, Rias, Akeno, Asia, and Mika were enjoying lunch. Shirou and Rias were sitting next to each other one of the couches and, Mika was sitting on the other couch.

"Say Ahh~" Rias said, holding a piece of meat on chopsticks, attempting to feed Shirou.

Shirou just stared at her. "You know I can feed myself, right?"

"Umm, come on, just this once~" Rias said, with a gaze that was like a request from a School-girl, which was ironic in this case.

"Yeah Big Bro, you can't say no to _that_!" Mika chimed in, enjoying this.

Shirou sighed. "Fine, whatever." He accepted the bite of food. Shirou then chewed slowly and examined the taste. "Hmm?" Then he swallowed. "You made the meat have a sweetness that melts in your mouth, with a slightly salty after taste, and used meat sauce that brought a wider taste. Not bad."

Rias smiled with a blush at his praise. "Really, thank you!"

"But…You still had a problem when cooking the meat." Shirou continued. "It's crispy on the outside but not as much on the inside, so you should've waited a bit more, and you added too many spices, making the flavours of the sauce clash too much, it needs some work."

Rias processed his words and smiled. "I see, I tried to make it like how you made it, but I guess I need a bit more practice."

Shirou scoffed. "You thought you could copy this Shirou-Sama's cooking after one taste? Not happening."

"Ara, you shouldn't be so hard on her Shirou-kun." Akeno said, bring a tray of tea to the table. "After all, the Chief worked all day to make you that Bento."

"A-Akeno!" Rias said embarrassed, though Akeno just looked amused and placed the cups of tea on the table. "I just wanted to show him the food I've been working on."

Shirou however, was unfazed. "She won't learn what to fix if I sugar-coat the truth." He replied.

Asia stood beside the couch holding a Bento box herself while liking nervous. "Oh, I made Shirou-san a Bento too."

Shirou turned to her. "You too?"

Asia nodded, feeling down. "But, if you've already got the Chief's…"

"Don't say that Asia." Mika cut her off. "Come on, let Brogami taste your food, it'll be like a Shokugeki."

"Shokugeki…?" Asia asked, her head tilted.

"Ignore that." Shirou told her and then took her Bento box. "Let's see what you got."

As he opened it, he noticed it was similar to Rias' one, except instead of meatballs, it had rolled omelette's. Shirou picked one up with his chopsticks and took a bite, he did the same thing he did with Rias'.

"Hmm." Then he swallowed. "You cooked the eggs at just the right heat and spread them perfectly, the flavour isn't just good, it's got the homely feel to it, nice job." Shirou praised.

Asia beamed whit happiness. "I'm so glad you like it."

"But…You beat the eggs to softly so that didn't cook all the way." Shirou continued. "And you made both the top and bottom the same when you should've made the bottom a bit more heated. It's still a bit lacking."

Asia looked a bit upset at that, but then looked determined. "I-I promise, I'll work harder until I can make it perfect."

Shirou just smirked. "Heh, good luck."

Mika clapped. "That was great, though I guess neither of them won the Shokugeki."

"Seriously, let it go." Shirou told her.

Rias looked at Asia and smiled. "You've been working hard too, Asia."

"I don't want to l-lose to you, C-Chief-san." Asia responded nervously. "But I think I may have lost anyway."

Rias narrowed her eyes with a smirk and whispered back. "I may have gotten a late start, but I have no plans of losing to you either."

Asia looked upset.

"Hey!" Shirou said loudly. "What the hell are you two whispering for, either speak up or shut up!"

After that, a Silver magic-circle with the Gremory family crest appeared on the table and a small hologram of Grayfia Lucifuge come out. This got everyone's attention.

"Grayfia." Rias addressed her, now serious.

"The plot continues." Mika added, now interested.

They all hear Grayfia explain to them the information that was discovered about the Stray Devil they captured the other night, and more specifically what he was researching and experimenting on in his lab.

"Then, that Stray Devil was a demonic alchemist?" Rias asked, after hearing the explanation.

"Yes. And we found something to be concerned about while investigating this case." Grayfia informed them.

"Concerned about?" Rias questioned.

Grayfia clarified. "A Chimera made from Hell's Carnivorous plants and Dragons was created in the laboratory and released somewhere in this city."

"Um, what's a Chimera?" Asia asked.

"It-"

"It's a monster made up of parts from a bunch of different creatures meshed together." Shirou explained, cutting off Akeno.

Akeno blinked. "…Yes that, Shirou-kun how did you know that?"

Shirou shrugged. "Mika talked about it from some anime she watched."

"It's not "some anime"." Mika responded offended. "It's Full Metal Alchemist, and it's a gem among the anime world!"

Shirou sighed. "Whatever, getting back on topic." He looked to face Rias, wanting to know more on the Chimera.

Rias placed a hand on her chin and thought for a second. "Carnivorous plants fused with a Dragon would be a pain to deal with."

"That is all." Grayfia said. "As soon as there is new information we will contact you again."

"Yes, we'd appreciate it." Rias said grateful, and the hologram faded away.

Right after that, the doors to the clubroom opened and in walked Kiba and Koneko.

"Chief, we've returned." Kiba greeted.

"…We're back." Koneko added.

Rias smiled at their arrival. "Welcome back. By the looks on your faces, I'm guessing you found something.

"Yes, I think we've found it." Kiba said as the two approached Rias. "The thing responsible for the disappearance of the Academy's girls."

"Wait, back up a bit." Shirou cut in. "Academy's girls? Disappearance? When did all this happen?"

"I too am unaware of this?" Mika chimed in.

"Oh right, you weren't informed." Rias said, remembering. "You see, these past few days, a number of students from this Academy have been going missing, we looked into it and have found their location, I'm surprised you didn't hear about this."

"She's right, some girls from our homeroom have vanished as well," Asia pointed out. "Didn't you notice Shirou-san?"

Shirou thought for a moment. "I skipped morning homeroom, besides the only girl from our class I'm interested in is Aika." He said bluntly, though he paused when he saw Asia pouting at that answer, Mika looked like she was about to laugh. "And _you_ , geez some times you act like a kid."

Asia smiled despite his words, she felt satisfied, though no one saw it now Rias was pouting.

Later at nightfall, the members of the Occult Research Club were walking through the forest, trying to track down the Chimera.

"I've been wondering something though." Shirou spoke up. "If these girls are disappearing, why hasn't anybody been acting like it?"

"Well, I was told that all the girls simply became ill." Asia answered.

"In a way that's true." Rias noted, "However there was magical energy lingering on inside of them."

"Inside?" Shirou asked. "How'd that happen?"

"We'll soon see, once Kiba and Koneko realised that magic was there, they knew where to find it." Rias explained.

"Hmm," Shirou thought for a second. "Asia, do you know anything else about the girls that were disappearing?"

"Um well, I don't know much really." Asia then blushed, embarrassed. "B-But, I've been told they all share a common trait."

"And that is?" Shirou asked.

"T-They all ha-have big breasts…" Asia, looking away, her face was red.

Everyone had sweat-drop fall from hearing.

"Okay…And who told you that?" Shirou asked, having a sneaking suspicion.

"Kiryuu-san." Asia replied.

Shirou face-palmed. "Of course! That's what she would zone in on!"

"Although, that does explain why no one from your class or below was targeted." Mika pointed out. "Asia and Aika have Boobs that are only average at best." Asia hide her chest behind her arms, embarrassed by Mika's remake. "And Koneko's chest is basically a washboard." Then Kiba had to hold Koneko back from Mika.

"Your breasts are small too, you know." Rias noted.

Mika just looked at her bored. "I'm a Middle-Schooler and a NEET, What do I care about my bust-size?"

Rias didn't have a comeback against that one.

Soon they all stopped and saw something ahead of them. It looked like a large green tree-grove with a large number of thick and deadly thorns surrounding it, and at the peak was a huge Red Rose. This was what they were looking for.

"A Demonic plant?" Asia asked.

"No." Rias responded. "This is…"

Soon the Rose opened up and a yellow Dragon head with bladed sharp teeth and blood-red eyes popped out and growled.

"The Chimera." Shirou confirmed.

"Yes." Rias nodded. "This is the Chimera that Grayfia spoke of. Let's keep this short, shall we?" Rias was preparing to fight but stopped when she heard someone approaching. "Hide, someone's coming."

At her words, they all hide behind the trees or in the shadows, while watching they could see two silhouettes walking through the forest and making their way towards the Chimera. After a bit, they could close enough to be seen. They were two girls who were the same age as them and from their school, right now they were both wearing sleepwear, one of them had brown hair and the other had salmon coloured hair. They both walked like they were in a trance.

Shirou recognized their faces. _"That's Katase and Murayama from the Kendo club."_

Shirou knew them because he would often see the two of them leading the charge at chasing any Perverts from school that peeped on the Kendo club while they were changing, he always found it hilarious to watch.

The two girls stopped in front of the plant-like creature and the vines around it started to open up, looking like suction cups and they reached out to the girls, placing themselves over their breasts and starting to suck on them. The trance-like girl let out moans as this was happening.

The hiding Devils watched this in confusion, surprise, or in Shirou's case dumbfounded at the ridiculousness of it all.

"What's going on?" Asia asked worriedly.

"It seems to be sucking the life energy out of them." Rias deduced.

"…But why through their breasts?" Shirou asked, with half-lidded eyes.

"Fortunately, judging from the case we've seen so far, it never sucks them to death." Kiba noted.

"That's true." Rias agreed. "So, let's just observe for a little while longer."

After a little more of this, the vines released themselves from the two girls and they turned around to walk away as if nothing had happened.

"Well we watched, and we still don't know…Whatever the hell that was about." Shirou said.

"Somehow, it seems to attached targeted students here every night." Kiba noted.

"And then it sucks them of their life energy for nourishment." Akeno finished.

"So? Let's just kill that thing and be done with it." Shirou suggested.

"I agree." Rias spoke up. "Regardless of what it's doing, now that we're here, we're putting an end to it."

Rias stepped out of hiding and they all confronted the Chimera unconcerned, once it noticed her the Chimera brought up its vines and leashed them out at her, Rias quickly jumped out of the way but the vines didn't stop and inside changed their direction, now heading towards Asia. Asia was tried to run but wasn't fast enough.

 _SWISH!_

What happened next wasn't the attack connecting to Asia but rather Shirou getting in front of her faster than the vine could reach and with a chop of his hand, the vine was slashed and cut off as if it were cut by a blade.

"Asia, stay close to me." Shirou instructed her.

Asia remained safely behind Shirou.

Rias now in the air held up her hand and gather demonic power in her palm. "There's no time to hesitate! Prepare for battle!" She ordered them. Rias then gathered a strong amount of Power of Destruction in her hand and fired it at the Chimera.

"Yes, Chief." Akeno responded as she used her magic to change her uniform into her Priestess of Thunder Miko attire. With that, she unleashed lighting-magic at the Chimera and destroyed a number of the Chimera's vines.

Koneko punched her fist into her palm and prepared to fight. "…Time to send you flying." After saying those words, Koneko charged at the creature.

Kiba summoned his Holy Eraser and swiftly began cutting down every vine he could reach. "How dare you threaten the peace of our school!?"

All large number of the vines then came together and began to rain down at Mika, but the girl just smiled and raised her left hand, holding up two fingers. "You chose the wrong one of us to start with." At that moment a magic-circle appeared in her hand and a strong burst of slashing winds shot out, cutting and slicing the vines to bits and pieces in an instant.

Things continued at this pace, the vines would come, the Gremory Group would attack. the vines would be easily destroyed. But as things continued going on like this, after a short while some of them noticed they weren't making any real progress, and the reason for that was every time they destroyed a vine, after a second it would just grow back.

"You guys are seeing this too, right?" Shirou asked, crushing another vine. "I'm not the only one?"

"Yeah, its limbs grow right back." Kiba agreed.

"Its regenerative ability is outpacing our attacks?" Rias deduced, before landing back on the ground. "Its strength has grown considerably due to the human world's air and soil, and the life force it's sucked from the school students."

"Dammit." Shirou cursed. "Why do we always fight the weirdest kind's of monsters possible?"

Standing a few feet away from the battle zone, Asia looked on in concern for her friends. "I hope everyone will be okay." Unfortunately, at that moment she heard a rumbling from the ground beneath her, and a few vines then burst out from the ground right in front of her and they wrap themselves around her body. "Aaaauuuggg!"

Everyone quickly turned around when the heard her scream. "No, Asia!" Shirou called out.

"Kyyyaa!"

"Iyyaaahh!"

Shirou turned back when he heard more screams, what he saw was the President and Vice-President of their club then being held up in the air with the vines wrapped around their bodies like tentacles, soon Koneko was also caught.

"Rias! Akeno!" Mika called out.

"This is bad!" Kiba said, worried.

"Wh-What is it doing?" Rias asked, unable to hide to worried tone in her voice or the blush on her face, the vines were now releasing a strange white liquid that was streaming over her body, and two of the vines opened up and covered her chest the same way it did previously to the school girls that were here before.

"…An unfortunate development." Koneko said with her usual stoic tone, though she was also blushing, the same thing happening to Rias was being done to her.

"Ara, Ara~ what naughty tentacles." Akeno said in the same boat, though she was blushing, she didn't seem as uncomfortable as the other two.

Shirou, Kiba, and Mika were the only ones not to have been caught and were now watching their clubmates being held up by the vines.

"Damn, now it has hostages." Shirou noted, frustrated.

"We have to be careful about how we attack now." Kiba said, concerned.

"Yep… I see where this is going." Mika noted, almost bored.

Both the guys standing next to her turned to look at her, but before they could ask what she meant, they noticed something else was happening to the girls bound up in the air. Slowly but undoubtedly their clothes were starting to melt away, little-by-little like a small candle burning away a tissue, the fabric on their bodies were disappearing into nothing, revealing the bare skin beneath.

"Oh my, what trouble~." Akeno noted, still not looking or sounding displeased.

"…Unpleasantly slimy." Koneko said, now looking worried.

"Augh, it's so gooey, and my clothes…" Asia cried out, embarrassed.

"This slippery stuff, this slimy stuff… It's melting our clothes!" Rias cried out, the most embarrassed (Which was odd considering she's an exhibitionist).

Shirou face-palmed. "Oh… That's what you meant."

Mika nodded. "Uh-huh, tentacle rape with the melting clothes thrown in, one of the oldest tropes out there. They appear so often in some many Hentai that its become cliché at this point." She explained. "I can't even get into it right now."

A large number of the girls' clothes were gone at this point, all their skirts (Or in Akeno's case, the lower half of her Miko outfit) were gone and all their chest were exposed as well.

"Chief! Can't you break the bonds with your magic?" Kiba asked.

"It's no use." Rias answered. "My movements are too restricted to use destructive magic."

"I can't use my lightning attack either." Akeno chimed in.

Rias turned to her first Rook beside her. "Koneko, can't you use your strength to break loose?"

"…It's too gooey." The First-Year replied.

"That mucus is making it impossible for them to use their magic." Kiba noted. "At this rate…"

"Yes they'll be Naked, we've established that." Mika cut him off.

Shirou prepared to fight the Chimera and end this, but at that moment, the vines stopped sucking on Asia and Koneko's chest and the vines wrapped around their bodies just let them go. Asia and Koneke then flew to the ground, Shirou dove in and caught Asia while Koneko landed safely on her own.

Koneko only had the tattered remains of her student blazer around her side, the top of her student white shirt on her shoulder, her white and pink striped panties, and her shoes and socks, everything else was gone, so she covered her chest with one arm.

Asia only had the tattered remains of her student white shirt covering her shoulder and sleeves, her pink panties, and her shoes and socks, everything else was gone, so she covered her chest with both her hands.

Shirou looked annoyed by this situation. _"Why do I keep finding myself carrying Asia while she's barely dressed?"_ He thought.

Meanwhile above, Rias only had the tattered remains of her student white shirt over her shoulders, and her waist, her black lingerie panties, and her shoes and socks. "Why did it only release Asia and Koneko? Aahn!" She asked before the vines sucked on her chest more.

"Aaahn!" Akeno moaned as the same was happening to her. "I-It's only been going after our breasts. It seems like it can suck out more life force from us."

"T-Tough luck for, Iya!" Rias noted before moaning out.

"But why the breasts?" Kiba asked.

"Good question." Mika thought for a second. "Come to think of it, weren't all the disappearing females' students big breasted too?"

"So, it's targeting girls based on cup-sizes?" Shirou tilted his head. "This makes less sense to more we learn."

"D-Don't just stand there thinking about it! Do some-Aahhnnnn!" Rias shouted.

"Such a lewd voice isn't suited for a High-Class Devil Lady such as yourself." Grayfia said, appearing as a hologram in front of Rias.

"Grayfia?" Rias spoke, surprised. "More importantly, have you received any new informati-Iyyaahh!"

"Yes, the Chimera I told you about has a tendency to suck a woman's life force out from her breasts." Grayfia informed.

"We know that already! it's happening right now…Yyyyaaahhh!" Rias whined.

The hologram of Grayfia turned around and looked at the Chimera. "There's something else. It's been endowed with another special ability."

"Oh great, what is it this time?" Shirou asked.

When they looked at the Chimera, they saw something that was easily the strangest thing they had seen all night, on the top vines of the Chimera, something started budding from them like fruit, however, what sprouted were literally breasts, breasts that were growing from the plants.

Shirou just stared not sure what to think. "…Mika?"

"Sorry Bro, no clue." Mika replied.

"If a girl were to consume the boob fruit produced by the Chimera, her breasts no matter how small, will grow to an abundant size." Grayfia explained.

"That's what this thing is for?!" Shirou snapped.

"The Stray Devil confessed it." Grayfia stated. "He said, _(If all girls in the world were to grow huge breasts, the kindness in their hearts would swell, and men's dream would take flight! Tiny tits are a criminal cruelty! The world is for massive jugs! Breasts and Peace!)_. End quote."

"…Now I really wish we killed him." Shirou stated bluntly.

Apparently he wasn't the only one who felt this way, a loud noise was heard as stand behind them was Koneko who had pulled a massive tree from the ground it was rooted in an held it over her head.

"Tiny tits are criminal…Tiny tits are cruelty…" Koneko had a death glare in her eyes and was emanating a killing intent so strong it was visible. "…Prepare to die." She then smashed the whole tree into the Chimera.

The others just watched her take her wrath upon the creature.

"She does know brute force doesn't work, right?" Shirou asked.

"She's just letting off steam." Mika sighed. "It is so sad when people have an inferiority complex about their bodies."

Behind them, Asia curled up into a ball, her head buried into her knees, and was in depression. "I'll never have breasts like the Chief or Akeno-san." She pouted.

"See what I mean?" Mika asked.

Koneko then threw the whole tree into the Chimera, knocking it back.

"Okay, this has gone on long enough, Kiba!" Shirou called out to the Knight. "You go left, I'll go right."

"Understood." Kiba nodded, understanding the plan.

The two of them dashed forward at the Chimera and jumped upwards, even though the creature itself was knocked down, the vines holding Rias and Akeno were still in the air, as the two boys reached the King and Queen of their Peerage Kiba used his Sword to cut apart the vines around Rias and Akeno, and Shirou reached out grabbing the both of them and spreading his wings, floating back to the ground safely.

Shirou then released them, though at this point the only clothings they had were their shoes and socks, every inch of their bodies were out in the open, but they didn't seem to mind. "Thank you Shirou, you two saved us." Rias said gratefully.

"She's right, as your Sempai I should reward you~" Akeno said, getting closer.

"Save that for later, we're not done here." Shirou reminded her, Kiba landed too and the two of them fist-bumped.

"That's right." Rias gathered some demonic power. "Let us destroy this thing."

Shirou held up his arm, stopping Rias. "About that, I think you'd better let us handle it."

"Us?" Rias asked.

Shirou nodded with a smirk, he then dashed back to where he was standing before, beside Mika who had a blue magic-circle in her hand. "Are you ready?"

"The spell's good to go." Mika replied with a smirk. "Now do it."

"With pleasure." Shirou summons his Boosted Gear, then places his hand on Mika's shoulder. "Booster Gear: Gift."

 **[BOOST!]**

 **[TRANSFER!]**

And with that, the magic-circle doubled in both size and magic power and Mika was ready to fire it.

 _ **FREEZIA!**_

At her command a strong concentrated blast of Ice-Magic shot out from her hands as if a blizzard had been unleashed, everyone got out of the way as it was on a direct course for the Chimera and nothing was going to stop it.

 _WISSSH!_

Once the spell it, the forest had turned into frozen land of ice, with both the ground and the trees completely iced over, it was an image you wouldn't usually see outside of the winter season. As for the Chimera itself, it was now completely frozen over, it looked like a perfectly craved ice sculpture, down to the last detail. Though after a few seconds it cracked and broke apart into pieces, now nothing more than a pile of ice-shards on the ground, it was gone now along with all the boob fruit. Mika put her arms downed and looked at her work satisfied. "Nailed it."

Later, Rias and Akeno have used magic to restore theirs and Asia and Koneko's uniforms back to how they were before this ordeal, they were all fully clothed again. They also restored the forest back to greenery, getting rid of all the ice.

"Our mission was a success." Rias said with a smile.

"Always count on the Tsukiharu siblings to end things in a big and flashy way." Akeno pointed out, with a smile.

"Whatever." Shirou brushed off.

"Still though, what a selfish thing to say." Mika said remembering the Stray Devil. "It was narcissistic to believe he spoke for all mankind if he only thought of big boobs, what about the lolicons? or the Yaoi-lovers?" Mika asked seriously.

"Can we stop?" Shirou asked, bored. "Let's just all agree that tonight was just a mess that shouldn't have existed, now let's go home, call it a night and never speak of this again."

Mostly agreeing with that statement, everyone decided to part ways and head off their respective homes, while Shirou, Mika and Asia walked off to theirs and called it a night.

* * *

 _~I Seek Boobies!~_

It was evening in the Occult Research Club meeting room, and all of its members were currently there minding their own business. Most of them had just finished completing a summon, except for Mika who simply had no desire to even attempt it, right now Rias was sitting behind her desk reading paperwork while wearing her glasses. And soon Asia asked her a question.

"You want to observe the others working?" Rias asked.

"Yes," Asia nodded. "I want to see if I'm doing my job as a Devil properly."

"True it could be beneficial to you since you're new." Rias then turned to Mika. "Mika you should join her."

Asia perked up. "Then I have permission."

"Hold up." Mika spoke up. "Why do I have to go too?"

"Because you haven't made a single pact since you've become a Devil." Rias answered. "This will give you some motivation to start."

"But I don't wannnnaaaa~!" Mika whined.

"Listen, you two." Shirou chimed in. "Take my advice, don't bother. I've seen the kind of things these guys do when summoned and it won't teach you a thing. Koneko just usually gets called by some gamer guy and all they do is play video games, which he always loses. Akeno gets summoned by some loser CEO and he just has her give him a massage while she's dressed in bondage gear, and I have no idea why."

"It's because he gets stressed from his work, so I help him be more relaxed." Akeno answered.

"That doesn't explain your costume." Shirou argued.

"That's my preference~"

"Whatever, and Kiba just gets summoned by some woman whose overworked and has him make her dinner."

"About that," Kiba spoke out. "Shirou-kun, she told me to thank you for last time."

Rias blinked. "Last time?"

"That's right, a short while ago I told Shirou-kun about what I do, and he decided to tag along," Kiba explained. "He made dinner for her back then and she never looked more satisfied, he then did again for her from that point onwards."

"Tell her to stop thanking me." Shirou replied, somewhat annoyed. "I do 'cause I like cooking, not for gratitude."

Akeno smiled. "You realize saying things like that just makes people more grateful."

Shirou scoffed. "Anyways, the point is, you won't learn a thing from seeing them work."

"See, even Big Bro says we shouldn't." Mika noticed, satisfied.

Rias just smiled and closed her eyes. "Well, it just goes to show how peaceful the world is nowadays, even for Devils."

"It feels more like odd jobs than Devil work." Shirou argued.

"Um, what about the Chief?" Asia asked.

Shirou blinked. "What?"

"What kind of summons does the Chief do?" Asia clarified.

"Huh, actually now that you mention it," Shirou looked at the High-Class Devil in question. "I never really found that out."

"I don't really want to work, but even I have to admit, I'm curious about that." Mika said.

Rias looked pleased with that. "Then you're in luck." She stands up. "I've been commissioned to do some substantial work tonight. It'll be a great opportunity for you."

"We get to observe you, Chief?" Asia asked excitedly.

"Why do I get the feeling, I won't like this?" Shirou asked skeptical.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine." Rias assured them.

* * *

Later they all appeared in a new location via teleport, now they found themselves in the large hall of a museum. There seemed to be a number of Egyptian artefacts in the room, the room itself was a large rectangle shape, the floor was a clean shiny tiled floor, with a red carpet going through the middle, that's where they appeared from when the magic-circle appeared.

"Where are we?" Asia asked looking around.

"A museum." Mika answered. "And in the Egyptian exhibit by the looks of things."

"Oh, Gremory-san." They turned to see a middle-aged ma wearing a lab coat and a suit walking up to them.

"Good day, professor." Rias greeted. "I am here to fulfil your request."

"Oh, it's much appreciated!" The professor replied gratefully.

Rias looked back at her Peerage. "This is professor Nishiura. He researches ancient civilizations from around the world."

"Really?" Shirou asked as he raised a brow. "Because this just looks like Egypt."

Nishiura smiled. "Yes, that's what most people would assume, but look here."

Soon they were all directed to a medium-sized room with a desk and chair, books and research material. In the centre of the room was what looked to be an ancient sarcophagus.

"Looks like an ancient sarcophagus." Kiba said.

"Still Egyptian." Shirou noted.

"It's a valuable historical artefact we excavated from some ancient ruins." Nishiura explained.

An ominous aura was emanating from the sarcophagus that was making some of them uncomfortable.

"Aah! It's giving me a chill." Asia said holding her arms.

"Indeed, the coffin is emitting a certain aura." Rias said, narrowing her eyes. "Not a good one, at that."

"I knew it!" Nishiura said loudly, before looking excited. "The truth is, people who have been involved with this have come down with unknown diseases, gotten into mysterious accidents, or met misfortune in some way, shape or form."

The others looked surprised by this. Shirou just seemed bothered by the professor.

"And is there a reason why you look so happy about that?" Shirou asked.

"So what, the coffin is some kind of Jinx?" Mika guessed.

Asia who was frightened by that very idea quickly clung to Shirou. "Aah! That's so scary!"

"More like a pain." Shirou replied. "So how do we fix it?"

Nishiura gestured to the coffin. "Take a look at those hieroglyphs."

They all looked at the strange image on the top. "You mean the two half-circles?"

"Let me tell you what it is." Nishiura then read the hieroglyphs. "'Only a beautiful Devil woman with large breasts shall awaken me!'"

Shirou face-palmed. "Are you kidding me, this again?"

"To summarize, he wants to be awoken by a beautiful female Devil with big boobs!"

"I have a better idea. Let's just destroy the coffin and be done with it." Shirou suggested.

"…I second that idea." Koneko agreed.

"Y-You can't!" Nishiura said defensively. "This is an important artefact with my secrets that have yet to be discovered."

"Question." Mika raised her hand. "What were all the people involved with this like before their misfortune?"

"Oh, all the researchers who've been cursed we're all dirty middle-aged men."

"And they got cursed for _that_?" Shirou asked, dumbfounded.

"In any case, let me examine it." Rias said, approaching the coffin.

"What? You're actually waking up that dead freak?"

Rias turned to Shirou. "Regardless of how I feel, I have to complete the request I was summoned for."

Shirou sighed. "You'll be sorry."

Rias then stood in front of the coffin and pressed her breasts down onto the two circles on the base, the moment she did the whole coffin started glowing blue and Rias quickly stepped back on high alert.

"What's happening?" Rias asked.

"Oh, just as I thought!" Nishiura proclaimed ecstatically. "The coffin opens when a female Devil gets close enough!"

Once the glowing died down the coffin opened up and what came out was a smoke-like gas that was blue in colour. Though not knowing what would happen next, Rias stepped closer to the coffin and looked to see what was inside, what she saw were the mummified remains of a human body, completely wrapped up in bandages, though his mouth and left eye were uncovered. The others gathered around to see as well.

Shirou looked unimpressed. "Really? That's exactly what we thought was in their, what was with the light show?"

"Be careful, Shirou." Rias warned.

"Careful of what?"

As he spoke those words, the left eye of the mummy opened and looked directly at him, the pupil was glowing red. Quick as a flash a red light shot out from the mummy and dashed towards Shirou.

"Gah!" Shirou gasped.

The others turned their attention to him as he was gripping his head in pain.

[Shirou?!] They all shouted.

All the members of the club gathered around him in worry, the first to reach him as his sister.

"Big Bro, what's wrong?" Mika questioned, concerned.

"I-I don't know! it feels like my I'm being strangled from the inside!" Shirou responded in pain.

He struggled to stay upright, there was a strong red aura now surrounding his body and as he opened his eyes his, pupils were now flashing red and normal back and forth, Shirou could feel himself slipping. To end this struggle, he summoned his Boosted Gear and flared up his own aura clashing against this foreign one.

 **[BOOST!]**

"GET OFF ME!" Shirou roared and unleashed his power.

With that final push, the red aura was blown off of him and Shirou was free, having ended the struggle. Once that was done, Shirou gasped for some air and regain his footing.

"Shirou!" Rias went over to him. "Are you alright?"

Shirou breathed a bit, then nodded. "Yeah, but what was that?"

"This is quite a surprise!" A voice now one in the room recognized spoke. "I never expected you could push back my possession like that!"

They all looked in the direction the voice was coming from, in front of the coffin. There was a red glowing ball of light, the same colour as the aura that tried to possess Shirou only a moment ago. The ball of light soon expanded and manifested into a figure in the shape of a person, somewhat similar in size and shape to the mummy.

"Who has roused me from my slumber!?" The figure of light asked.

"Who is that?" Shirou asked, on guard.

"Must be the spirit of the mummy." Kiba guessed.

"I'm the one who woke you up." Rias greeted calmly. "Good day, mummy man."

"Heh, my name is Unas!" The light figure greeted back while posing. "As a noble priest, I perform ceremonial magic! I must thank you for waking me!"

The others just stared at him, not knowing what to say while Nishiura still looked excited and Shirou just looked irritated.

"What a douche." Shirou muttered.

"I take it, that little display from before was you truly to cast your consciousness into my Adorable Pawns body and take it over, wasn't it?" Rias had a smile, but she was anything but calm right now. "You've got some nerve, what was your objective?!"

"My objective!? That's obvious!" Unas then pointed to the mummy. "I planned on using his body until my soul could rest in peace upon returning to this cursed body, but he forced me out, which wasn't my plan!" He kept posing.

"Well of course I did!" Shirou shot back. "Like Hell I was going to let myself be possessed by some, posing douchebag like you!"

"Silence! I am the great sorcerer Unas!" He responded, insulted.

"Ufufufu, but isn't it kind of pathetic for a sorcerer to get cursed in the first place?" Akeno pointed out, with a smile.

"I said silence! It happened when I attempted to summon a High-Class Devil with my advanced sorcery!" Unas explained.

"A High-Class Devil?" Rias asked. "Which one was it?"

"You'll be surprised when you hear this! It was a female relative of the Arch-Duke Agares!" Unas answered.

"What?"

And just as he predicted they were surprised.

"The Arch-Duke is the highest-ranking clan in the Underworld." Akeno noted. "Second only to the Great Kings."

"But before I could even negotiate!" Unas continued. "That Devil sealed my body along with most of my powers! Thus I had no choice but to enter a long slumber!"

"Yeah, that's called dying, stupid." Shirou noted, dryly.

"As long as I am under this curse, I will need the use of someone else's body!"

"Just try it." Shirou dared him. "I'll drive you out as many times as I have to before you're gone."

"Heh, even if I can't take yours!" Unas points to the others. "I could always take one of theirs! They obviously don't have the same power as you! Or I could just go out and steal the body from anyone in the area! You can't be everywhere at once!" He taunted.

Shirou clenched his fist. "You Bastard."

They knew he was right, even if they could stop him from possessing themselves, he could just fly out and steal a body from an innocent civilian from the streets outside. And realistically they don't have the means of stopping him.

"Fine then," Rias said unconcerned. "I can't afford to let you in-danger the people of my territory. Sorcerer Unas, I will lift your curse!" She declared.

Unas looked at her carefully. "I take it that you're quite a powerful Devil yourself. Fine then, I will leave it in your hands, Crimson-haired woman!"

"So what specifically do I have to do?" Rias asked.

"There are three curses placed upon me!" Unas answered. "The power of a beautiful Devil is necessary to lift them!"

"What? How did you get cursed thrice?" Shirou asked.

"I too would like to know this." Mika followed up.

"Heh, the one who placed the curse on me was extremely powerful, and so the curse was split into three!" Unas then reached into the sarcophagus and a blue magic-circle with three triangles around the circle appeared over it. From the sarcophagus, Unas pulled out a skimpy belly dancers outfit. "Ta-Da! Put this costume on and dance for me!"

It was extremely revealing as it only covered a same portion of the private parts, and by same it's actually almost nothing, the top was only two golden triangles that would only cover the nipples and left the rest of the top exposed, the bottom half was no better as it was the same golden triangle with less length and more width to barely cover the nether regions. Around the hips and waist were small straps of thin, pink fabric that was used the cover the back of the bottom half of the costume, though it was almost see-through. The strings that attached the costume together had small gems here and there for decorations.

Shirou stared with half-lidded eyes. "How is that thing still clean?"

Rias stared, narrowing her eyes in disdain. "Very well." She said begrudgingly. "I just need to put that on and dance, correct?"

Koneko also stared at it with disdain.

Soon the lights went out and the room was completely dark. This followed by a pink spot-light lighting a single spot on of the room with Rias who was wearing the dancer costume in the centre, She began dancing elegantly and sexually as Egyptian music play. Unas looked ecstatic and pleased with seeing Rias' dancer emphasize her body, while Asia blushed and the rest of the club just didn't respond. Shirou looked at this with no reaction until he turned to his sister and saw she brought her phone out and was recording this.

Shirou groaned. "Really?"

"Don't judge." Mika defended. "There's no way I wouldn't get a video of this, I am never letting her forget this."

Soon the music came to a stop and the lights returned to normal. As Rias finished her dance, the magic-circle above the coffin lit-up and one of the three triangles vanished. At that moment, Unas' form became more detail, his face expression could now be seen and his body of light looked more stable.

"That's the Crest of the Arch-Duke, all right." Rias said, still in her dancer outfit.

Unas had a satisfied expression. "Looks like one of Agares' curses has been lifted!"

"There's still two to go." Akeno said.

"Lifting the next curse requires the kiss of a beautiful female Devil!" Unas declared.

"Seriously!? What kind of wackjob curse is this?!" Shirou asked.

Koneko stepped back slightly as Unas turned to her. "You, small lady over there! You've been watching me intently for a while!"

"…I was trying to figure out if what you said was true, or if you actually had an ulterior motive." Koneko defended with a look of disdain. "That's why I was observing closely."

Shirou thought about that. _"She could be on to something."_

"I don't think so! I felt it! You looked at me with romantic interest!" Unas argued as he approached. "Therefore, I'd like you to lift the next curse! Come! Give me a kiss as intense as that sta-"

Before he could get any closer, Shirou stood in his way and grabbed his wrist. "Don't push your luck."

Unas glared at him, unable to free his arm. "You again!"

"If you really want a kiss." Shirou raised his fist up. "Then kiss the floor!" And with that he smashed his fist down onto the top of Unas' head, slamming him face-first into the floor.

CRUSH!

The floor crushed on impact and there were cracks around where his face was.

Shirou looked at him with disdain. "Really man, when a girl says now then just give it up."

Akeno placed a hand on her cheek and smile. "Ara, Ara, how chivalrous of you, Shirou-kun."

"Not really." Mika spoke out. "That's just Brozora's nature."

Koneko then stepped a bit closer to Shirou.

"…Sempai…" She hesitated a bit, then looked away with a blush. "…Thank you."

Shirou nodded. "Whatever."

Unas groaned a bit then sat up. "Ugh, how dare you!" He growled.

"Shirou-san!" Asia tried going over to him, but with her usual clumsiness, she tripped over a wire and fell onto Unas.

CHU

Her lips ended up touching his cheek resulting in an accidental kiss. Upon this happening, the second triangle around the magic-circle vanished and Unas' form became even more stable and detail.

Shirou face-palmed.

"You gotta be kidding." Mika said, dryly.

"Anyway, looks like we cleared the second curse." Rias reminded them.

Unas looked at the coffin with an evil smirk on his face. _"One more! Just one more and I can fully revive!"_ He thought, before turning to face the others. "The last curse will be the most difficult to lift."

"The most difficult?" Rias asked.

"Indeed, to be exact!" Unas pointed at Akeno. "I must motorboat a girl with huge Boobs!"

"Oh?" Akeno asked with a curious look.

"Okay, that's enough." Shirou said stepping forward. "I think we've had enough of your bullshit."

"Don't interfere! After this, I can rest in peace!" Unas said defiantly.

"Is that really true though?" Shirou asked suspiciously. "I'm pretty confident in my instinct about a persons nature and I've had my doubts about you from the start, you said you wanted to rest in peace but you like more like you want to live and every time a curse is lifted you look more alive." He pointed out. "Why is that?"

Rias narrowed her eyes. "That does seem quite strange, explain yourself."

Unas stepped back looked worried. "W-Well that's…"

"It's actually obvious," Mika spoke out. "The truth is Unas actually wants to revive."

"What?" Rias asked.

The others looked surprised as well, Shirou just narrowed his eyes at Unas, while Unas himself looked really desperate right now.

"What do you he's trying to revive?" Kiba asked.

"Exactly what it sounds like." Mika answered. "I was suspicious of the things he said when he first showed up, about his soul resting once the curse was lifted, so I watched him carefully. But as the curses started to vanish his form became more powerful and stable as Big Bro explained, it could have just meant he was preparing to go back into his body but I also noticed that not a drop of magic was returning to the mummy."

"But, how did you know who the magic was concentrating?" Asia asked.

Mika smirked. "It's elementary my dear Asia. I was using the spell Magician's Sight."

"Magician's Sight. It's a spell were a magic-user concentrates magic over their eyes, this allows them to see the inner magic of those around them and how much they have." Rias explained. "It's an advanced spell, I didn't know Mika could use it."

"With that spell, I was able to see your magic returning to you." Mika pointed at the mummy. "Since not a drop returned to the mummy then it wasn't actually in a long slumber as you said, it's merely a corpse, what you truly planned for was to regain your magic and revive yourself, that mummified body would be a vessel for that."

With all this testimony against him, everyone was now convinced of Unas' true intent, all eyes were on him to see how he would react.

Unas was seething with anger. "You… You miserable! I'll kill you!" He barked.

"Wrong." Shirou summoned his Boosted Gear. "I'm the one who will kill you. So hurry up and do it."

"Huh?" Unas was confused.

"If you really need to motorboat to revive then go ahead." Mika clarified. "Once you do, Big Bro will blow you apart so much you'll wish you stayed in that coffin." She told him confidently.

"Huh, your arrogance will be your undoing!" Unas taunted going over to Akeno. He then dived in and pressed his face into her chest.

"Oh? Ara ara! Offering me up without my consent? How naughty of you two~" Akeno said in a cheerful tone.

With that, the third triangle on the magic-circle vanished and with it the magic-circle itself. Once that happened the curses were lifted and Unas' red body of magic turned dark and flew back into the sarcophagus and into the mummy. At that moment the sarcophagus exploded and so did the room, blowing everyone back into the exhibit room. Kiba, Koneko, Asia, and Akeno were all laying on the floor, while Shirou was standing and Mika hovered beside him with her wings spread out.

As the others got up they heard laughter coming from a hole in the wall and they looked to see standing before them was the same mummy from the coffin only awake and walking. The bandages around the head were now gone, showing his face was that of a tanned man with long back hair reaching down to his neck, with to front strands going past his chest and two beady red eyes and a down pointed black beard on his chin. His figure was skinny.

"I'm the great Sorcerer, Unas!" Unas declared. "I have now revived! Well done, Devils!" He started posing again. "That Agares woman…After a millennium the curse has been lifted! I will see to my vengeance!"

"I so happy you've got everything figured out." Shirou said, sarcastically before glaring. "Unfortunately it won't mean much, considering you're about to die again."

"Before you do that, I'd like to learn something first." Rias spoke out, they all look up and see her standing on top of a large Egyptian statue. Still in her dancer outfit.

"Rias?" Mika asked.

"Would you take that thing off already." Shirou told her, annoyed.

"Could I asked you one thing?" Rias asked the mummy.

"What is it?" Unas replied.

"How did you get a curse placed on you?"

Unas shifted around uncomfortably. "The Devil I summoned was stunningly beautiful, so I told her my wish to marry… I mean, to have her as my Slave!"

"That's pretty ridiculous." Rias stated. "When you're dealing with an Arch-Dukes relative, you need an appropriate wish and reward. No wonder she burst into rage."

"That's what happened?!" Shirou snapped. "Oh, of course! What else? We have to deal with this shit because you tried summoning a Devil without reading the fine print!"

"He's right, you know." Mika agreed. "It's fine to have some lust, but you should be careful before it really gets you in trouble."

"Shut up, Devils!" Unas shot back, defensive, he turned to Rias. "I shall bring you down first!"

"Forgetting something?" Shirou asked right behind Unas.

Using his speed he appeared right behind him in an instant, then with one backhanded punch he knocked him off his feet and into a wall.

Everyone prepared themselves for a fight, either drawing their weapons or magic or raising their fists in Koneko's case. Rias jumped down from the statue and landed on the floor next to Shirou. She turned to Nishiura who was hiding on the upper floor.

"Professor, this mummy man is dangerous. Can we eliminate him?" Rias asked.

"That'd be a waste, but it looks like there's no option." The professor reluctantly agreed. "B-But, I'd appreciate it if you could at least leave the coffin intact."

"We can do that." Rias reassured him. "We'll leave the coffin alone and destroy only him."

Unas got up from the blow Shirou gave him and glared at Rias, having heard her words. "Your arrogant attitude reminds me of the annoying female Devil from back then!" Unas then raised his arms. "Take this!"

With his call, his bandages came undone and shot out, wrapping themselves around the limbs of Rias, Akeno, Asia, and Koneko, and holding them up in the air. Though Mika was spared because she was close to Shirou.

"Aah!" Asia cried out.

"Ah." Koneko gasped.

"Oh my!" Akeno said worriedly.

"Grr!" Rias grit her teeth in frustration.

Soon they were all held up high above Unas.

Shirou looked at the scene in front of him and noticed it seemed familiar. This made him sigh. "Not this again."

Mika just shook her head. "They really need to learn to watch out for that."

"Don't you dare move! If you move, these girls will be squeezed to death!" Unas warned them as his binding started to glow a blueish-purple and they started draining the girls of energy, making them cry out. "This is no ordinary bandage. I poured energy into it for many years. I will not come off easily!"

"This is a bit problematic!" Akeno cried out, flushed.

Mika and Shirou then raised their arms and aimed them at Unas. "But you've forgotten one thing." Mika stated with a smirk.

"What?" Unas asked.

"If you die, that'll free them automatically." Shirou finished with a smirk. "Right Unas?"

Unas was taken aback but kept his composure. "Heh, I already told you! Take one step and they'll die!"

"Then we won't take a step." Mika replied. "We'll kill you right where we're standing." She then summoned a magic-circle in her palm and prepared to fire it. Once she did a tempest of wind shot out from her hand, it was like a strong storm-like blast had been thrown his way, the winds weren't damaging but restricting, like a gale force from the higher point of a mountain, it took a lot of effort for Unas to not be blown away.

"Gugh! A wind-spell!" Unas cursed, trying to weather the storm. "It means nothing! A mere tempest cannot stop me!"

"That's good because we're not done." Mika informed him.

 **[BOOST!]**

From that call, he turned his attention to Shirou who held out his hand and in the palm of his hand Demonic Power started to gather power which soon turned into flames, the flames started to condense and form into a fireball, the fireball had a very concentrated flame, it was controlled and burning, resembling a ball of heat rather than fire but it still had embers around it confirming it was indeed a fireball. Normal the fireball would be the size of a baseball but thanks to Shirou's Boost it was twice that size.

Unas paled at the sight of it.

Mika noticed that. "For the look on your face, I take you've realized our plan of attack. While my wind spell keeps you from moving, it also acts and an enhancer for my brother's fire spell. That's why I spread the wind out like a tunnel, the fire will flare up in the tempest and became an inferno that'll turn you to ashes."

"Y-You can't be serious!" Unas barked fearfully.

"I gotta say, you sure picked the wrong Devils to mess with." Shirou taunted. "You never had a chance, not when going up against the Red Dragon Emperor, and the Best Magician you'll ever meet in this world."

Mika smiled at the compliment. "Love you too Bro."

"Now to end this." Shirou held the fireball towards Unas.

 _ **BLAZING GIG TEMPEST!**_

And with that Shirou the fireball and it turned into a blast much like a Flamethrower, in mere moments the flames mixed with the gale and became a torrent of flames, on par with a tidal wave that would consume everything and it was approaching Unas at a rapid pace. "Aauugghhh!" Unas screamed as the flames devoured him and he was obliterated, reduced to nothing but a small pile of ashes that were blown away into the wind.

With that, the girls were free and landed back on the floor. Shirou turned to Rias and narrowed his eyes at her. "I told you, you'll be sorry."

Once everything had been dealt with they all returned to the ORC room, Rias had even changed back into her Student Uniform. Now it was only Rias who was sitting behind her desk, and Shirou, Asia, and Mika sitting on the couch.

"Well, did you learn anything, Asia?" Rias asked.

"I learned that it might be better to work as I have been." Asia answered nervously.

Shirou yawned. "So basically nothing."

"Actually, this whole ordeal has made me want to do summons even less." Mika noted.

"Devils live for a long time." Rias told them. "So you can take your time and think about it, and who knows Mika, maybe at some point you'll change your mind."

"I seriously doubt that." Mika replied bored.

"Chief." Akeno said entering the room. "We received a request to investigate a coffin recovered from some ancient Chinese ruins this time."

"Could you ask some other High-Class Devil to take care of it." Rias requested, bothered. "The last one was so not worth the trouble." She sighed. "I'm not taking any more fishy requests."

"That would be for the best." Kiba said with a smile, having entered the room.

"I second that motion." Shirou agreed. "No way am I ever dealing with that crap again."

"True, but on the bright side." Mika then held up her smartphone. "I got this great recording out of it." It was a recording of Rias belly dancing.

Rias blanched at the sight of that. "Eh! When did you record that?!"

"The whole time." Mika grinned.

"Give me that!"

Rias reached out to grab the phone but Mika dodged her. This lead to the two of them entering a chase where Rias was trying to snatch the phone from Mika and Mika constantly escaping her grasp with amusement. Everyone else in the room just watched them. At some point, Rias was able to knock the phone out of Mika's hand and it landed in front of Shirou, which he then picked it up.

Rias rushed to him. "Shirou, delete that recording right now." Rias ordered.

"Don't do it Brokatsu." Mika pleaded.

Shirou just groaned. "Mika stop pretending." He turned to Rias. "Rias, even if I delete this, Mika has a lot more smartphones and each one has a copy of this recording."

"Eh?" Rias blanched at this information.

"Ah, why'd you tell her?" Mika said upset. "That was supposed to be the punchline."

"Oh, come on!" Rias cried out with a blush.

"Good grief." Shirou muttered.

* * *

 **And that ends the specials and OVAs, well there were more specials in season one but I didn't feel like doing them. And with this done the next chapter will feature the start of the next arc of this story, and as you know while be following the light novel so I'm sure you know what is after the Phenex arc. If you don't then stay tuned.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review, if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	18. Fighting, Sports and Familiars Forest

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This chapter will cover the things that happen in between one Arc and the next. I'll be the whole meeting the Student Council, the sports they played against each other, the Familiars and other stuff I'm going to add in for the plot of my own story, not to mention a prologue for the next Arc. Also in this chapter, you'll see the return of a character who hasn't been seen for a while. Hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Fighting, Sports and Familiars Forest**

* * *

 **Play OST Shokugeki no Soma - Searching for the Dawn of Cooking**

 _I sometimes wondered how long it's been…_

 _Ever since that day. The day I started my new life after burning down all the bridges behind me…_

 _I wasn't upset though, about who I killed or what I had to do to get here…_

 _All I knew was, I was free, and so was Mika…_

 _Everything from my past was gone…_

 _The only thing I kept was my name…_

 _Shirou Tsukiharu…_

 _It means. A child of a radiant white like the springtime moon…_

 _And Mika was always at my side. Never leaving me…_

 _"Big Bro." An eight-year-old Mika looked up at her Brother. "I know you say it's not a problem, and that I can't do much anyway. But for me, it's hard to see you do so much while I do nothing. Sometimes it feels like I'm just burdening you with more problems."_

 _Mika started to get teary-eyed and tears started to fall, an eleven-year-old Shirou just reached out and placed his hand on her head and followed by pulling her in an embrace._

 _No, you were wrong Mika, you weren't a burden…_

 _You were my very reason for being…_

 _And the only thing that kept me from running wild…_

 _Sometimes I think of the monster I could've easily become if I didn't have you…_

 _That's why I swore I would live…_

 _For her and myself I would never let myself die…_

 _Until I made our dream a reality…_

 **Music Off**

* * *

"Uuuhhh…"

After a short yawn, Shirou awoke and sat up in his bed. He rubbed his eyelids before opening them and shook off his drowsiness. He looked a bit irked.

"Dammit, why'd I have to dream about that again?"

He sounded annoyed and got out of bed. It had been several weeks since he had successfully defeated Raiser and won the Rating Game. Ever since he has been doing nothing but severe training, for no other reason than the fact that he wanted to see just how much stronger he could become after his Boosted Gear had reached Second Liberation. And just how far he could go in making techniques with the new Transfer-ability. Shirou already thought of some ideas for the latter. But because of the lack of enemies to fight, that wasn't really a factor.

After a few minutes, Shirou had finished getting dressed for school. "I guess I better go." He said in a bored tone. "Here's to another boring day."

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Someone was knocking at his door.

"Are you awake, Shirou-san. It's almost time for morning training."

Talking in a pleasant tone on the other side of the door was Asia.

 _"Morning training?"_ Shirou wondered. _"I thought I did that at dawn… Well, I guess I can do a quickie before School."_ He shrugged.

Even though Shirou trains around the clock, most don't realize he sometimes starts at the same time the sun rises from the horizon, though he stops in time to get some sleep before School. That said, if he ended up late for School in-favour of more training, he wouldn't complain.

"Shirou-san? Are you still sleeping?" Asia asked a little worried.

"I'm awake." Shirou replied. "Come in, the door's open."

The door to Shirou's bedroom is opened and Shirou himself turns around to see Asia with a smile on her face, dressed in the Kuoh Academy female P.E uniform, consisting of a white T-shirt and dark blue bloomers.

Shirou raised a brow. "Asia, why are _you_ dressed like that when I'm the one who'll be training?"

"Oh. Well, I." Asia nervously lowered her head. "I was thinking since I'm going with you, I might as well wear something more suited for training at least."

Shirou shrugged. "Well, whatever." He then headed for the door. "Let's go."

Asia quickly followed like a little dog following her master.

As they went downstairs, they both saw Mika sitting on the couch reading a book. She looked completely memorized by what she was reading, to the point where she didn't even notice her two housemates approach.

"Um, Mika-san?" Asia poked her shoulder.

"Wha?" Mika looked up and finally took notice to them. "Oh, hey. What's going on." She greeted.

"The usual, what are you doing, reading light-novel?" Shirou guessed.

"Surprisingly enough, not this time." Mika held up the book. "It's a tome for High-Level spells, I asked Rias for it."

Mika, while not as extreme as her Brother has also been training since the Rating Game. Whenever she had the time she would learn new spells and magic, as well as train to strength her magic reserves to be able to use stronger magic for an extended amount of time.

"Why are you reading that?" Asia asked.

"Obviously, I showcased my strength as a Magician in a blaze of glory back in the Rating Game." Mika stated in a matter of fact like tone. "But why stop there, I want to learn as much magic as I can. And pretty soon I'll even outclass Rias and Akeno."

"But there are a lot of spells in that book, are you sure you can learn all of them?" Asia asked, unsure.

Mika grinned. "Oh, Asia. Never underestimate a NEET's ability at memorization." She said pride.

"More like never ask a NEET about their abilities at all." Shirou argued dryly.

Shirou then headed for the front door. Asia seeing him leave, followed.

"Anyway, we're gonna head to school after training." Shirou told her with his hand on the knob. "See you after that."

Shirou was about to open the door and step out, but then Mika calls out to him.

"Wait!"

Shirou stops and looks back. "What?"

Mika then smiles and places her hands together to form a heart. "I love you."

Shirou, feeling this situation had happened before sighed.

"Is that going to become a regular thing with you?"

"Why, do you not like it?" Mika asked.

"It's just that you do that so often, and it's starting to feel awkward." Shirou answered.

"That's not true, Shirou-san." Asia chimed in. "It just means she wants you to know she cares about you. I think it's nice."

Shirou facepalmed. "Must you turn everything into an argument?"

"Ah, you technically didn't say you didn't like it Bromeo~" Mika pointed out, with a grin. "So that means you secretly like it."

"Not true, at all." Shirou denied and with that he left, Asia left with him and closed the door.

* * *

Later that day, as the sun set and School was over, the members of the Occult Research Club had gathered in the meeting room. Asia sat on one of the couches drinking tea, Rias sat behind her desk doing paperwork, Akeno stood next to her with her normal smile. Kiba was reading a book at the side of the room, Koneko eating junk food while sitting on the other couch, Mika was playing on a handheld videogame next to her, and Shirou just sat next to Asia staring at the ceiling. Everything was normal.

Though one could argue everything was boring at the same time.

Shirou let out a yawn.

"What's wrong, Shirou?" Rias asked.

"Nothing, it's just." Shirou kept looking at the ceiling. "I already finished my afternoon training, and I'm still bored."

"Afternoon training? Then you still plan on training through the night." Kiba asked.

"Well yeah." Shirou responded as if it was obvious. "What'd you think I was going to do, sleep? Study? I don't think so."

"But why are you training so much." Akeno asked. "The Rating Game is over, and things are peaceful now."

"Exactly. Since there's no ten-day time-limit, I have all the time in the world. Now I can work on all the things I didn't have time to work on but at the mountain." Shirou explained. "Not to mention I can work on new stuff too."

"Shirou." Rias got up from her chair and approached him. "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but why are you so determined to get Stronger? Is there a reason?"

"Reason? Isn't it obvious?" Shirou looked at her. "I want to hurry up and become a High-Class Devil already."

Rias blinked. "What?"

"I've been going about this the wrong way, instead of waiting for something interesting to come to me, I should look for it myself, and if I become a High-Class Devil, I'll be able to fight strong opponents. I'll even get to enter more Rating Games."

"You WANT another fight?" Rias asked surprised.

Shirou nodded. "Yeah, better that then wasting away in this boredom."

"Umm, Shirou-san, I think it's nice when things are peaceful like this." Asia argued timidly.

"Asia's right, Shirou." Rias agreed. "It wouldn't hurt to enjoy a peaceful School life for a change. Besides, I think most of us would rather not jump back into a battle, not since the last one."

The others (Barring Mika) nodded.

Shirou snorted. "Oh please, what do guys have to complain about? You barely did anything." Shirou points to Kiba and Koneko. "The only thing you guys did was beat one enemy exclusively." He then points to Rias and Akeno. "And you two, the all powerful King and Queen duo, did nothing."

"You're never going to let us forget that, are you." Kiba said, feeling his self-esteem take a hit.

A sentiment the rest of them shared.

Akeno raised her hand. "In my defence, I had my opponent take from me by Mika-chan."

Mika looked at Akeno. "Then, are you saying you could have beaten her better than I did?"

Akeno opened her mouth, wanting to respond but couldn't.

Mika smiles at that.

"I rest my case. Though I agree with Brophala. We're way stronger than any Low-Class Devil at this point, there's a video to prove it. Why not just promote us and get it over with?"

"I do agree that you both have come far in terms of abilities, but unfortunately it takes more than power to be promoted." Rias said.

"But you said, _(In the world of Devils, power is everything,)_ and we've got power." Shirou reminded her.

"It's not that simple, Shirou-kun." Kiba chimed in. "While it is true Devils can get promoted based oh how strong they are, it still takes a while for them to be recognized. Especially for reincarnated Devils, even in record time, it takes years for one to be promoted to Mid-Class, and twice as long to High-Class."

"Are you kidding!" Shirou was annoyed by this information. "Why do I have to wait years for something I clearly deserve now? How many other Low-Class Devils are the Goddamn Red Dragon Fucking Emperor? How many can take out a Phenex?"

"Whether you deserve it or not isn't the issue, Bronikin." Mika said. "My guess is the reason it takes so long for reincarnated Devils to rank up is because the Pure Blood Nobles are the ones who run the show. And obviously they don't want reincarnated Devils to rise above them, so they keep them in lower ranks for as long as they can." Mika then rested her head on the armrest of the coach. "The usual elitist crap."

Rias sighed. "That's not how I would choose to word it, but there is some truth in her statement."

Shirou groaned. "Lousy Nobles, if they weren't already in Hell I'd tell them to go there."

"Now, now." Rias went over to him. "Don't get too upset, for now, you should just let things run their course."

"Don't patronize me Rias." Shirou got up. "I'm just going to deliver today's batch of fliers and get back to training. Come on Asia."

Shirou and Asia were about to grab some when Rias stepped in front of them.

"Actually that is what I was planning to tell you both." She smiled. "As of this day, you both no longer have to deliver fliers."

"What do you mean?" Asia asked worriedly.

"While it may not be a promotion, you've been Devils long enough that you don't need to do tasks like these anymore. And thus, you will be getting a familiar."

"And that is-What exactly?" Shirou asked.

"A familiar is—"

"Familiars!?"

The busty Red-head was interrupted by the high-pitched outburst of the little girl behind her.

"We can get familiars!? That awesome!" Mika's face was filled with excitement.

"And how is that?" Shirou asked annoyed. "I have yet to receive an answer on what a familiar is."

"That's true, I don't know what they are either." Asia stated.

"Familiars are—"

"Familiars are creatures that act as a both a pet and an errand-boy to those who own one." Mika explained, interrupting Rias again. "They are mostly animals or small creatures and people use them to do grunt work. Apparently people in the Supernatural world, Devils in most cases can gain familiars after they have enough experience and have them hand out fliers instead of doing it themselves. Familiars also appear a lot in anime so I practically an expert on the concept."

"Ahem." Rias coughed out looking displeased. "Could you please not interrupt me so often. Now familiars are…Um…T-They're…Basically what Mika just said." She sighed.

Mika grinned.

"Moving on. Does that mean you guys have familiars already?" Shirou asked.

"Actually, that's exactly right." The Crimson-haired Devil held out her hand and waved it. Then an oddly round, cartoonish looking bat appeared over her palm in a puff of smoke. "This is my familiar, I use her to pass out fliers."

Shirou looked confused.

"What? What can that thing possible do that?"

He got his answer when the bat puffed into a ball of smoke again. When the smoke cleared, what was revealed was a young woman with short brown hair and a red dress.

[Aaahh.] The Tsukiharu siblings said together.

"That's how." Shirou said knowingly.

"Guess it's true what they say 'sex sells'." Mika said knowingly.

The girl turned back into a bat before puffing away into a ball of smoke.

"And of course I have one too." Akeno smiled and pointed slightly to the ground and in a small green light was… Well a little green man small enough to hold in her palm, with a horn.

"Huh… I don't even know what to call that." Shirou responded.

Turning to Koneko. The White-haired first-year had a small white kitten with a bell-collar in her hands. "This is Shiro."

Shirou scoffed. "Oh yeah, a white cat named Shiro, that's original."

"You're named Shirou." Koneko pointed out.

"I didn't name myself you know." Shirou argued.

"Mine's badass." Kiba stepped up and summoned his familiar. A small golden light appeared on his should and what appeared was a small golden bird that looked like a cross between a hummingbird and an eagle.

"…Good enough." Shirou muttered. "No offence, but is this really it? These familiars all just look like mascots or playthings. Aren't there any that are good for fighting?"

"As I said before, most familiars are either for grunt work or pets." Mika reminded him.

"…Great." Shirou groaned.

"Well, I would really like having a familiar." Asia stated.

"Me too." Mika agreed.

"I'm glad you feel that way." Rias said. "You will gain your familiars by—"

KNOCK! KNOCK!

She would have said more, but was interrupted by a knock on the door that got everyone's attention.

"Wow, you cannot stop being interrupted tonight, can you?" Mika rhetorically asked Rias.

Rias chose to ignore that comment. "Akeno, can you get that."

Akeno nodded and opened the door to let in those who came to visit.

The door was opened it the ones who waked in revealed themselves to be two bespectacled beauties with a serious expression on their faces. The one in front was petite in size, her hair was black styled in a bob-cut, and her eyes a violet colour. Her compatriot, possessing far longer black hair that reached her back, and heterochromia eyes as well as a far more curvaceous frame, stood respectfully behind her.

Behind them were five more females that had the same expression. All of them were wearing the Kuoh Academy female student uniform.

"How nice to see you, Sona." Rias greeted.

"Hello Rias, I thought I might drop by." Sona said.

Shirou narrowed his eyes at the new arrivals. "Student Council President."

Sona likewise, narrowed her eyes upon laying them on the delinquent. "Shirou Tsukiharu."

It was a moment Rias dreaded for what seemed like ages.

The meeting between, Sona Stiri, the strict disciplinarian Student Council President of Kuoh Academy, and Shirou Tsukiharu, the delinquent king with a will of rebellion that seemed practically infinite.

As the two stared each other down, most observing tried to determine who would be the first one to start a conflict.

Then Sona's mouth curved upwards into a smile, the girl stretched out her hand to Shirou.

At first, Rias presumed it was some kind of attack spell or she was trying to take something from Shirou, but then she realized that Sona was just holding her hand there, her face expectant.

"It's both a pleasure and a surprise to see you here again. I was not made aware that you had become a Devil."

"I feel the same way." Shirou responded, shaking her hand. "I mean imagine my surprise, the Student Council were Devils."

"I would have made my appearance known sooner, but unfortunately I couldn't attend the afterparty after your Rating Game."

"Oh, you saw that?"

"Yes, many in the Underworld did, you were quite impressive." Sona complimented.

"Well I'm glad you enjoyed the show."

"Again, I would like to reiterate my gratitude for your assistance last year." Sona said grateful.

Shirou brushed it off. "Oh come on, I already told you, it was nothing."

Everyone from the ORC, even Mika, stared wide-eyed, jaw-dropped in shock at the almost amicable way the two clashing personalities treated each other. Those from the Student Council however, didn't look surprised.

Rias was the first to snap out of her shock, needing to manually push her jaw closed. She gestured to them. "You two… Know each other?"

Sona placed a hand on her hip. "Of course. Tsukiharu was one of the students who volunteered to help the Student Council set up the culture festival last year."

"He was!?" Rias felt bad about sounding so shocked.

"Well to be more precise, the choice was not his." Sona clarified. "He was conscripted to help us by me after looking over his record."

"Apparently I went over the "maximum acceptable number of absences"." Shirou said irritated. "And unless I helped with the festival in exchange for extra credit I'd be held back a year."

"I was surprised by what a diligent worker Tsukiharu was however. We actually finished preparations _ahead_ of schedule for once."

Rias could not help back feel disbelief in what she was hearing. Whenever she thought of the words "Diligent" and "Shirou" in the same sentence, she always assumed the words "Training" or "Cooking" would be involved.

"I just wanted to get it done, besides I always keep my end of an agreement." Shirou said casually.

"You were still a great help." Sona assured him. "And you even took the time to help out the food stands. Thank you."

"No thanks are necessary." Shirou assured her. "That was the one thing he had fun doing."

"Wait, you helped managing the food at the culture festival?" Kiba asked.

Shirou shrugged. "I just gave them a few tips."

"No wonder everything tasted so good, last year." Akeno said quietly.

"So then, does that mean that all of them are Devils like us?" Asia asked, gesturing to the girls behind Sona.

Sona nodded. "That is correct. This is my Peerage."

"Yeah, they're also the Student Council." Shirou starting pointing to them. "Tsubaki." He pointed to the girl with long black hair who walked in beside Sona. She nodded. "Tsubasa." He pointed to a girl with blue hair. She nodded. "Momo." A girl with white hair. She waved. "Reya." A girl with dark brown hair tied in two braids. She smiled. "Tomoe." A girl with reddish-brown hair tied in two ponytails. She bowed slightly. "And… I don't know this one." A girl shiny brown tied in two ponytails.

"This is Ruruko Nimura." Tsubaki introduced her. "She's a First-year who only joined last Spring."

"Ahh, that explains why I didn't see her at the culture festival."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Ruruko said with a bow."

"In any case, care to tell us why you dropped by Prez?" Mika asked, somewhat interested.

"Well, in truth I was planning to introduce my new Servants to Rias," Sona said but looked slightly annoyed. "But apparently one of them in running late."

"You have another new?" Shirou asked surprised. "Who?"

"Who else?!"

A voice spoke out coming from outside the room, yet in the nearby hallway. Shirou's eyes widened for the simple reason that he recognized that voice. While he hadn't seen him in a while he could never forget the owner of said voice. After all, he used to hear it almost every day.

Soon that person stepped inside the clubroom and walked up the Shirou, he took his place right beside Sona rather than behind her like the others. He wears the same standard uniform as Shirou expect for him the sleeves on the blazer were cut off making it more of a vest, and the top three buttons on his T-shirt were undone. He had dark purple hair with red highlights in his front bangs that was messy and spiky going down, and his eyes were black. He had the same bad boy look that Shirou had, both of his hands were wrapped in bandages which showed he regularly used them for fighting.

He was Takeru Saito, now as a Devil.

"Long time no see, Tsukiharu." Saito said with a smirk.

"Saito." Shirou said, with a glare.

The two of them engaged in a stare-down, one so heated it almost looked like a fight would start.

They were however interrupted.

"You're late, Saito." Sona reminded him, displeased. "I told you to arrive with the rest of us."

"I had stuff to do." Saito said, unconcerned. "Besides, I'm here now, aren't I?"

"That's not the issue." Sona was now irritated.

Saito sighed. "Right, right, the whole "meet and greet" thing, whatever."

Sona adjusted her glasses, clearly not happy about what just happened.

"Now all that all of my Peerage is in attendance, let us began the introductions."

"Very well then." Rias said, trying to hide her amusement.

This was somewhat nostalgic for her, seeing Sona and Saito at odds with each other reminded her of the times she and Shirou were always arguing when he had first joined. Even though it wasn't that long ago, it feels so distance right now. At this point, all she can do is look back on those days and laugh.

"This is Ruruko Nimura, my Pawn." Sona gestured to her, without looking at her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Ruruko greeted.

"Well, this is Asia Argento, my Bishop." Rias said, likewise gesturing to Asia. "And Mika Tsukiharu, my Rook."

"T-Thank you for coming." Asia greeted, nervously.

"How's it going." Mika greeted, nothing bothering to hide her disinterest.

"And this is Takeru Saito, my other Pawn." Sona then gestured to Saito.

"Yo." Was all he said.

"And as you all know, Shirou, my Pawn." Rias then gestured to Shirou.

"Sup." Was all he said.

This obviously wasn't going well.

"I don't remember you wanting to join the Student Council." Shirou said.

"It wasn't my first choice, but apparently I had to in order to join her Peerage." Saito clarified. "I become a Devil around late Spring."

"That's around the time you stopped challenging me to a fight." Shirou noted.

"Yeah." Saito points to Sona. "Sona here, wouldn't get off my case unless I did Council work on top Devil work. And she wouldn't stop complaining about my fighting."

"I thought I told you to call me President." Sona ordered him.

Saito snorted. "Yeah, not gonna happen."

"Besides that, I told you before, a member of the Student Council can't go around acting like a thug." Sona scolded.

"And I told you, outside of school, you're not the boss of me!" Saito shot back.

Mika looked at the scene in front of her and asked what everyone from the Gremory Peerage was thinking. "Anybody else feel like you've seen this before."

They all nodded in agreement.

Sona sighed. "I'm sorry about him."

Rias gave her an understanding smile. "Likewise."

"Alright, let's finish this up." Sona spoke out. "Shake hands."

Both Pawns groaned. As they reached out to shake each other's hand, once the handshake began everyone could tell they were both putting a lot of strength behind their grip like they were trying to break each other's hand. While doing this, they decided to continue their conversation.

"So you're a Pawn too, huh? How any Pieces did you take up?" Shirou asked.

"Five, how many did you take up?" Saito asked.

"All eight." Shirou answered.

"Serious? Is it because of you Boosted Gear-thing?" Saito asked.

Shirou blinked. "Yeah… How do you know about that?"

"I watched you fight against the flaming chicken."

"You too? Anyways, how did you take up five Pieces?"

"It's because Saito also possesses a Sacred Gear." Sona answered for him.

"I can speak for myself, Sona." Saito told her with a glare. "But yeah, I do."

With that, they let go of each other's hand (And to their annoyance they were unable to break each other's hand) and Asia approached Saito.

"I'm Asia Argento. It is very nice to meet you Saito-san." Asia greeted him with a warm smile.

Saito just looked confused by the sudden introduction, not to mention the smile that came with it. "…Uh, yeah, you too. I think."

"I've heard so much about you, it is so nice to meet another one of Shirou-san's friends."

Both Shirou and Saito did a doubletake after hearing that.

"Wait, wait, friends?" Saito asked. "Where the hell did you hear that?"

"I would also like to hear where you got that idea." Shirou said.

"Well, the two of you have known each other for a long time." Asia answered innocently. "And you see one another almost every day."

"Yeah through fighting." Saito corrected.

"It's true, the only reason I see him all the time is to pound his skull into the asphalt." Shirou added.

Saito glared at him. "Hey asshole, I'm not some punching dummy!"

Shirou shrugged. "Look, I know you're frustrated, but the fact is I have zero loses against you, and your number of loses is a three-digit number."

"There yo-you see that!?" Saito turned back to Asia. "How can you possibly call this a friendship?"

Asia's expression didn't change. "I know you both can be rough at times, but I can tell. Deep down I believe that you both truly think of each other as a friend." She then looked at them with a peaceful looking smile that was oozing kindness and good-nature. "I know that you two believe it as well."

.

.

.

The two delinquents just stared, completely unaware of what to say, or what even was the statement they just heard. It was as if everything that was just said was a language they didn't understand, that's how confused they both were. After a little while, Saito broke the silence.

"What is _wrong_ with her?"

Shirou just shook his head.

"I stopped asking that awhile ago."

CLAP!

Mika clapped. "All right, since Brodouji is done making out with his boyfriend—"

"Hey screw you!" Saito cut in.

"—Let's hurry up and get our familiars already."

"Oh." Sona said with mild surprise at Mika's revelation. "Is that what you were planning to do, Rias?"

"Yes. I was thinking of going tomorrow evening actually." Rias replied with equal politeness in her tone.

"Well, that's a bit of a problem. We were also planning to see _him_ …and he only sees people once a month."

While they were talking Shirou and Saito looked to each other, believing they were thinking the same thing.

"Who are they talking about?" Shirou asked.

"No clue." Saito replied, equally confused.

Back to the two High-Class Devils.

"In that case, why don't we have a little contest between our two Peerages to see who gets to go?" Rias suggested with a smile on her face.

"A contest?" Sona asked with surprise. "Surely your not talking about a Rating Game?"

Those words immediately got their attention.

"Can we?" Shirou asked hopefully.

"I can get behind that." Saito said excitedly.

Rias chuckled softly. "Sorry boys, but no. We'd never get permission for something like that."

As she waved off Sona's suggestion, the two Pawns that consumed multiple Pieces felt their enthusiasm deflate completely.

"You're right." Sona agreed. "We'll just have to settle this a different way."

"Why not a sports contest?" Akeno suggested from beside Rias, her wide smile never leaving her face.

"Good idea, Akeno." Rias praised her Queen before looking back at Sona. "What do say Sona? Fancy yourself a little game of Tennis?"

"You're on," Sona replied with a little twinkle in her eye. "Two-on-Two, our partners will be our Queens."

Rias nodded in agreement.

"Yeah um." Shirou cut in. "No offence but, this sounds kind of pointless and unnecessary."

"True, not to mention we don't really want familiars that much." Saito said in agreement. "Wouldn't it just be a lot less of a hassle if one side just waits till next month?"

Now it was Rias and Sona's turn to be confused.

"What? Why are the two people in this room who love fighting more than anyone, now suggesting against a confrontation?" Rias asked.

"Because this isn't a fight." Shirou pointed out dryly. "It's just sports."

"Yeah and, we won't really be doing anything." Saito pointed out dryly. "It'll just be you guys."

Sona fixed her glasses. "…Are you sure you two aren't friends, because you seem to agree on most things."

[We're not!]

"Relax you two." Mika got their attention. "I think you're missing the point, Sairou."

"Don't combine our names!" Shirou barked. "We're not some stupid Hollywood couple."

"As I was saying." Mika continued. "The truth is those two don't care about who goes where and when anymore, all they care about now is beating each other in a contest. You can see it in the spark in their eyes." She pointed out them.

Shirou blinked and turned to Akeno. "Is that true?"

Akeno chuckled a little. "Ara, Ara~ The two of them are Childhood friends, yet they've always been competitive against each other."

"But why Tennis? Why not some other sport?" Shirou asked.

"Because Tennis is the one sport that Akeno, Sona, Tsubaki, and myself are good at." Rias answered that one.

"Wow." Shirou said rhetorically with a deadpan expression.

"Are you serious?!" Saito said to Sona annoyed. "We came here, just 'cause you wanted an excuse to outdo Princess Kool-aid hair!"

After hearing Saito call her that, Rias narrowed her eyes and sent him a glare.

Mika tried to hold back her laughter. Shirou did not. "Hahahahahaha!"

Sona didn't appreciate his tone. "Why are you so bothered by this? It's not like you'll be doing anything."

"Yeah, but if I know this was going to happen I wouldn't have bothered showing up." Saito replied.

"It wasn't enough that I, Your King ordered you to be here?" Sona asked, narrowing her eyes.

Saito immediately shook his head. "No, not even close."

And with that, Saito began to make his exit.

"Where are you going?" Sona questioned.

"Out." Was all he said, before he was out of sight.

Sona looked like she was going to have a migraine. "It seems we must take our leave." Sona and the rest of her Peerage turned around and started heading towards the doors. "I hope you're ready to be beaten, Rias." Sona remarked challengingly.

"And I hope you're ready to bring your A-game, Sona." Rias said back to her, before the council closed the door behind them.

Shirou just looked at Rias and the door in which Sona walked out of and thought. _"…I'm still bored."_

* * *

Night had fallen and once again, Shirou was training himself to the bone to gain greater power. Right now he was training with Ren in the middle of the woods outside of town, and a Barrier was up so they wouldn't be disturbed.

 _PUNCH! BANG!_

After a fierce exchange of blows, the two of them skidded back and came to a stop. Both Shirou and Ren were covered in dirt and bruises, Shirou even had a few burns.

"That should be enough for now." Ren said, walking up to him. "I think you're ready to try it."

Shirou's face lit up with anticipation. "Really? All right, how do I do it?"

"Just try powering up. But not Demonic or Dragon power, try picturing the power coming naturally from you yourself." Ren instructed.

Shirou nodded and then closed his eyes, raised his, and took a fighting stance. He dug deep into his mind and tried searching for the power buried down inside, a power he had newly obtained, and drew upon it, letting it flow from around his body, surrounding himself in a pure-white aura that was almost see-through. And in that moment Shirou could feel it, it was like the energy of life itself was coating his body, he was stronger in both aura and strength. Right now Shirou never felt stronger and more in-tune without his own body.

Ren smiled satisfied. "Congratulations, you're now able to use Touki."

"Touki." Shirou repeated, turning off the aura. "I didn't think it would feel this potent."

"Touki is like using your own life force and turning it into a source of power. Its ability is pretty basic, all it actually does is increase all your physical traits like strength, speed, power, and stamina, along with all the others." Ren summarized. "And while it sounds simple on paper, the difference in performance is in truth, so great it's like you're a different fighter, that's why they call it fighting spirit."

"Then I couldn't be happier." Shirou said, before turning to Ren. "Not to change the subject, but tell me. You knew Rias and the others were Devils from the start, right?"

Ren nodded. "Yeah, like I told you, I can sense the presence of others while masking my own."

"Then did you also know about the fact that the Student Council were also Devils?"

"Of course I did." Ren confirmed. "But honestly, it wasn't that hard when you think about it, I mean Rias and Sona meet up a lot and they always act like they know something others don't, you could see whenever they spoke to each other."

"Yeah, I guess they were dropping some hints. But I'm pretty sure only someone who knows about the Supernatural would notice." Shirou argued.

"Sorry I never told you, but like with Rias, even though I know these things, I'd rather not tell people about someone else's secrets unless that person is directly involved." Ren stated.

"Don't worry about it." Shirou brushed off. "It was never my place to know unless they felt like telling me, and unlike Rias, I still believe in privacy."

"Point taken." Ren agreed. "Still, who would of guessed that Saito would join her."

"Hmph… Whatever reason he had isn't important." Shirou brushed off. "Besides, this just means I can fight him again, it'll be nice to do some light workouts again."

"You have a one-track mind." Ren commented. "Still, here's something you should know. Sona and Rias have more in common then you think."

"They both love bossing people around?"

"Not that obvious."

"They both have Delinquents for Pawns?"

"True, but not that."

"They both have Black-haired, tall girls who always stand next to them?"

"All true, but not what I meant." Ren replied. "What I mean is, they're both the younger Sister of a Satan."

Shirou's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

Ren nodded. "It's true. Sona is from the House of Sitri, that's the family that the Maou Leviathan came from, before than Sona's older Sister was the heir to her Household."

"Just like Rias." Shirou noticed. "Man, does every Devil King have a younger sibling? Wait, the Asshole Zephyrdor said his older Brother was the Maou Asmodeus." Shirou remembered."

"And apparently the Devil King Beelzebub has a younger Brother." Ren informed him.

"Huh, must be a Satan thing."

"Yeah well, at least the more agreeable ones are the ones at this school."

"All right, let's get back to training." Shirou decided. "So tell me, think you can teach me some Senjutsu now?"

Ren paused, and looked unsure. "Um…I, I don't think that's a good idea right now."

Now Shirou was confused. "Why?"

"Senjutsu is different from Touki. While Touki is something anyone can learn to use with enough training, regardless of their race, without risk. Senjutsu contains a lot risks." Ren explained. "Senjutsu is a power that is similar yet different from the magic. Senjutsu is the power to control the flow of life energy or Ki in living beings, some call it Chi, but the meaning is the same. Using it, you can strengthen both your inner and outer body or even cause vegetation around you to bloom or wither. And Senjutsu users are able to sense the Ki and auras of others, thus letting them track targets from far away distances. Also if you can disrupt the Ki of your opponent or sever it, it's possible to cause direct damage to their spirit and using this as an attack could result in killing their opponent. As such, there are very few ways to defend against Senjutsu.

"Whoa." Shirou was impressed. "Senjutsu sounds awesome."

"It is but it also has a fatal flaw," Ren spoke grimly. "While it lets the user read and handle spirit power, Senjutsu will uncontrollably take in the malice intent and ill will that flows in the world, therefore if an amateur used it in an incorrect manner, then the malice will end up corrupting the user."

"Corrupt?" Shirou asked. "And what'd you mean, malice intent and ill will?"

"I mean, all the dark and negative thoughts and emotions that flow around you, everyone has them and they're attached to their aura." Ren clarified. "When you use Senjutsu you essentially become like a beacon that it flows into, and when that happens it affects your mind. You become more vicious, drunk off power, and all your darker thoughts become amplified. Like some of those horror movies when the character would get mind-fucked and become psychopaths, that's what happens to amateurs who can't control their Senjutsu."

Shirou takes in all this new information in. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't shocked, he never imagined that this new power he had desired carried such risks, and the side-effects could be that catastrophic. Now all he could do was stay silent and think about all this.

"Fortunately, none of that will happen if you stick to Touki." Ren finished. "So we'll just train on that."

"…Hey Ren." Shirou spoke serious. "Have people who aren't Youkai tried learning Senjutsu?"

"Hmm, yeah, I've heard of a few." Ren answered.

"And do you know of any of them that didn't go crazy?"

Ren shook his head. "Afraid not, Any Human or Devil that I know of that tried to learn it all failed."

"I see." Shirou then looked up with a confident smirk. "Then I guess, I'll just have to be the first."

Ren was taken aback. "What? You still want me to teach it to you?"

"That's right," Shirou confirmed. "Even if it is as deadly as you said, for me the risks aren't worth backing away from it." He then had a look filled with desire. "I want the power of Senjutsu, and there's no way in hell I'd ever fall prey to my own power, instead I'll make it my own, no matter what."

Ren didn't seem to share his confidence. "But, even if you say that the success rate of what your trying to do is 0%"

"That may be, but so what." Shirou didn't waver. "To me, the pros outweigh the cons, and right now I want to become as strong as I can, that can't happen if I keep trying to play it safe during training. And even if the risk is myself going insane, I know I can do, my mind is too strong to be broken by something as shallow as malice intent."

Ren still seemed unsure. "But… what of the chance that it does mess with your mind, if only slightly?"

"Heh, if that ever happens." Shirou smiled. "If that ever happens, come and set me straight all right. That's what best friends are for."

Ren looked surprised by his answer at first but then smiled himself, feeling his unease wash away. "Yeah, I guess you've got a point there." He then took a stance. "Okay then, let's begin training, this'll be harder than anything we've done to this point."

Shirou took his own stance and smirked. "Sounds pretty niiiicceee~"

 _PUNCH!_

 _BOOM!_

 _BANG!_

 _BURN!_

 **[BOOST!]**

* * *

The next morning in Shirou's opinion was something, much like last night, he couldn't forget.

The difference was that in the next morning's case, it was not in a good way.

One thing Shirou knew was that in Kuoh Academy, word travels fast. So when people heard about a Tennis match between Rias Gremory and Sona "Shitori", many rushed out to the Tennis court to see if from themselves first-hand. Though to be honest, the audience was less here to see a Tennis match and more to see, the four most popular girls in the school in Tennis uniforms, and for the chance to ogle them in their tight-fitting sports clothes that hugged their bodies in all the right places.

"Lousy School of horny fucks." Shirou muttered from outside the fence as Rias and Akeno stepped on the court.

The two gorgeous young women wearing white wrist sweat-bands, while the redhead wore a pink sports dress with a low V cutout that showed much of her cleavage and no sleeves. Akeno was wearing a yellow sleeveless polo and a darker yellow mini-skirt.

Sona and Tsubaki also stepped on the court. The two of them also wearing—While covered more—didn't leave much to the imagination. Both Black-haired girls wore white sleeveless polos and black wrist sweatbands, but Sona was wearing a pink mini-skirt and Tsubaki was wearing a green one.

"Akeno, we're in it to win it." Rias said to her Queen.

"Got it." Akeno responded. "No mercy!"

"Everybody ready?" The Redhead smiled confidently while holding up the ball. "Good."

"So then, may the best Devil win." Sona said to her.

And with that, Rias served the Tennis ball. Sona didn't need to move that much and sent the ball back over the net. Akeno rushed to her right and shot the ball back over. Tsubaki holding a racquet with a strangely long handle strikes the ball overhand back at the other team.

While the game was going on, Shirou had no trouble following the Tennis ball's movements, unlike the crowd. But the crowd wasn't really interested in following the ball, what had them excited was the fact that whenever one of the girls hit the ball, their skirts lifted up just enough to see their panties. And while the guys were excited whenever they saw that, surprisingly enough, all the girls seemed to prefer seeing Sona's.

A little bit away from Shirou's location, Kiba and Koneko stood next to each other as the crowd around them continued to grow.

"I don't think I've ever seen this many people at a Tennis match before." Kiba commented after looking around at how many students there were. When Sona shot the ball back almost all the Girls cheered. And then when Akeno hit the ball, almost all the guys cheered.

"Is it just me, or is this getting a little out of control." Koneko noticed.

Back on the field, Sona was about to serve the ball when an idea popped in her head. "Let's see how you like a magic attack." She said before striking the ball, however, a blue Magic-Circle with the crest of the Sitri family appeared behind her as she infused her magic into the ball. "Sona Sitri Style!"

The Tennis ball, now giving off a blue aura, rockets towards Rias at high speeds.

"Oh really?" Rias said. "Let's see the 'Gremory Counter-Strike' —" Before she could even to try and hit it, the ball went off in a completely different direction. This shocked Rias by the suddenness.

"Point to Sitri." Reya announced from the high chair.

"And of course, here comes the official cheat, also known as magic." Shirou commented.

"Hey, we did agree on no magic, didn't we?" Kiba asked Koneko, feeling a bit afraid of what this was going to lead to.

"Yeah, but that doesn't seem to be stopping them." She replied.

"Well then, I guess we've kissed the rule book goodbye on this, huh?"

"Look, Sitri." Rias said with a confident smile. "You can cheat all you want to, but in the end, it's not going to mean a bit of difference in this game." She then challenged Sona by pointing her racket at her with her fist on her hip. "You want a 'magic show'? Well, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve!"

"Do your worst, Gremory!" Sona accepted her challenge with a confident smile of her own. "You think I'm afraid of you. Bring it on!"

"Funny how, even though she calls magic cheating, she doesn't hesitate to do it herself." Shirou commented.

"Guess they forgot about the audience or they don't care." Saito commented from the other side of the fence. "How can someone so smart be so stupid?"

The rest of the game was like watching two powerful beasts battling chaotically against each other.

* * *

That evening. Back at the Occult Research Club meeting room.

Kiba and Koneko were holding a pair of broke Tennis racquets, that were completely totalled from the match.

"I swear, something is wrong with those two." Shirou commented.

"It wasn't that bad." Asia attempted to argue.

"Not that bad?" Shirou asked rhetorically. "Asia, the equipment they used was destroyed, the referee's high chair was broken, and the court was on FIRE! I'd call that bad."

"Hahahaha!" Mika laughed. "I wish I could've been there."

Shirou messaged his head. "And for me, the worst part was listing to everyone rave every time they saw a panty-shot."

That got Mika's attention. "Ooh, ooh, ooh, is there a recording of it?" She asked like a kid asking for a toy.

"Actually yes," Shirou took out a camera from his pocket and gave it to her. "Go nuts."

"Shirou-san!" Asia looked at him disapprovingly.

"What?" Shirou shrugged. "If they didn't want to become fap material, they shouldn't have worn those stupid outfits, besides I didn't record it, I just grabbed the camera from some idiot standing next to me in the crowd."

"You stole that." Asia was now more upset with him.

"Relax, I'll give it back that guy. Unless I can't find him or of course I forget." Shirou brushed off the subject, making Asia give him a pouting expression. Which didn't affect him all that much.

"…Chief has already hired some Devils to repair the court before the next morning." Koneko said, putting the two broke racquets on the table. "…But it's too bad it was a draw. …Since no one won, they're suggesting we all compete in a team match."

"Are you kidding, now I have to join in on this shit."

"Afraid so my friend." Kiba said. "They're all out there right now deciding what we should play."

The conversation ended when the door opened, and in walked Rias and Akeno. "We've chosen Dodgeball as the game to play." Rias announced before walking over to the others. "We'll meet the Sitris tomorrow night in the gym. Luckily no one will be in the School so we'll be able to play without anyone in the way. So, let's win this."

[Right!] Her Peerage responded with enthusiasm.

Shirou lazily threw up one fist without any enthusiasm. "…Yay."

Mika didn't respond at all, more interested in watching the recording.

* * *

On the night of the Dodgeball match, the Gremory team was in the gym before the Sitri team had arrived.

"They outnumber us by two people since Mika won't be playing, so we've asked the others to be the referee's." Rias told the five team members while four of them stretched themselves to prepare for the game. Shirou just stood there, not feeling the need to stretch, and Mika just sat on a bench.

Most of them were all wearing the same clothes they wore during their mountain training.

Right now Asia was on the floor painfully doing the splits, with not much of a choice as Akeno was bent over and pushing her back, she was wearing the same Kuoh Academy female gym uniform as Asia and Koneko, which was white shirts with navy blue accents on the front and side, and navy blue bloomers that showed off much of their legs and thighs.

"What are the odds this'll turn into another magic fight?" Shirou asked uncaringly.

"The way I see it, as long as we don't break any rules, using magic isn't an issue." Rias claimed.

"Right, but what happens when your magic destroys the ball?" Shirou pointed out.

"Ufufu, don't worry about that." Rias then picks up the ball. "We've already placed a spell on it, it won't break no matter how hard we strike at it."

"Aaah, my legs feel like they're on fire!" Asia yelled in agony, continuing to be forced down to stretch.

"Come on, just stretch a little further. You can do it." Akeno said in an assuring tone, smiling as she helped Asia.

"I'll try." Asia said through the pain. "AAAHHH!"

Shirou just stared at the scene. _"She's obviously enjoying that. Sadist."_

The Silver-haired Pawn felt a tug on his left sleeve and saw it was Koneko. "…Can you help me?" She said simply with a small blush.

Shirou shrugged. "Fine, but just to warn you, this might hurt."

She turned around and sat down on the floor, he crouched down and placed one hand on her back. One he started, his strength immediately pushed Koneko further than she was expecting or prepared for, she felt like her body was going to split.

As this went on, Koneko's cheeks reddened while she let out a moan and yelled in pain. "Aaah! Augh! AAAAHHHH!"

"Oh suck it up!" Shirou told her while pushing. "You're a Rook."

Some of the others stopped what they were doing and looked at them.

"Don't break her, Playbro." Mika said amused.

"She'll be fine, we have a healer." Shirou replied.

 _"Ara, Ara, does Shirou-kun have some hidden Sadism in him?"_ Akeno thought interested.

After two minutes of preparing, everyone gathered around.

"Let's go out there, and do our best to kick some Sitri butt!" Rias exclaimed.

"Yeah!" The others (Barring the Tsukiharu siblings) cheered.

 _"I have something else in mind."_ Shirou thought.

"Ready to rock?" Sona's voice was heard. They turned their heads and saw the entire Student Council standing on the other end of the gym. Just like the Gremory team, the girls wore T-shirts and bloomers, while Saito wore a Black T-shirt and Blue sweatpants.

As everyone spread out to begin, Shirou and Saito were face to face.

"Tsukiharu, today you'll lose." Saito declared, determined.

"That's not possible, Saito." Shirou shot back, confident.

And with that, the game began with Tsubasa holding the ball. Momo and Ruruko were elected to be the referees, so they stood away from the players.

The game started when Tsubasa threw the ball. It ended up hitting Koneko in the left breast, shredding through her shirt in the process.

"That's a point!" Momo announced, holding up a red flag.

"Already! What kind of Rook are you!?" Mika reprimanded her from the bench.

Now Tomoe had the ball. She charged it with Demonic energy and cocked it back. She threw the ball at Rias.

 _POW!_

The Redhead was able to catch it with both her hands, as her hair was blown all over the place by the wind created from the speed of a Knight throwing the ball, even ripping pieces of her tracksuit.

"Wow, being able to see Tomoe's fastball and catching it to boot is impressive." Sona said to her.

"Don't forget, Sona, I'm a Gremory. That's just how we roll!" Rias said.

"Wow, that was lame." Shirou commented.

"So lame." Saito commented.

Rias shot the ball towards her the other team. After it left her hand, she opened a magic circle in front of it, making it pass through it and infusing it with her Crimson energy.

Reya saw it coming towards her and held out her hands, hoping to catch it. However, the ball was too strong and it hit her, burning off her clothes and leaving her Nude.

Seeing that, Shirou raised a brow and looked at Saito. "Do you find it odd on how, she was hit by a fire spell and while her clothes completely burned away, her skin is untouched?"

"That is strange, to the point where you can say, it makes no sense." Saito agreed.

The game continued with members of the Occult Research Club and the Student Council were throwing the ball back and forth over the court, because there was only one ball the only strategy of the game was dodging the ball and throw it back. Over the course of this match, it now came down to only Sona, Tsubaki, and Saito on one side of the court, and Rias, Akeno, And Shirou on the other side. Although since the game started, Shirou and Saito hadn't touched the ball once, and have barely moved.

Rias then passed the ball to Akeno. "Akeno, finish this!" Rias instructed her Queen.

"Don't mind if I do." Akeno complied and shot the ball towards Sona. After it left her hand, she opened a magic circle in front of it, making it pass through it and infusing it with yellow electric energy.

As it closed in—

 **[DELETE!]**

 _POW!_

—The aura surrounding the ball completely vanished and the ordinary Dodgeball had been caught, stopping in its tracks. To everyone from the Gremoy teams surprise the one who caught the ball was Saito who was standing in front of Sona, he held the ball in his right hand and hadn't even flinched when the landed in his hand. But that wasn't what surprised everyone. The surprise was what was on his left hand.

It was a metallic, armored-like attachment, it seemed to made of the same substance as Shirou's Boosted Gear, only it was pitch black. Its appearance resembled that of a Lizard's head, with a sharp spike on the back, it covered the back of his hand and went up to his wrist, though it left his fingers uncovered.

This was a Sacred Gear.

"Are you surprised?" Saito asked, getting their attention. "This is my Sacred Gear, Delete Field. It has the power to completely suppress the powers of my enemy's, provided they're within range. And just so you know, it's also a Dragon-type Sacred Gear."

"I see now." Rias narrowed her eyes at Sona. "So this was the reason you scouted him, Sona."

Sona smiled confidently. "That's correct, Rias. After I saw his potential, I knew he would be an asset to my Peerage, and that fact that he was strong enough to consume five of my Pawns Pieces was also a welcomed miscalculation. At his best, even though he is new, his power surpasses the rest of my Servants. He's the ace of the Sitri Peerage, Takeru Saito."

Mika also narrowed her eyes from the bench. " _This is a surprise, I didn't expect she was hiding something like that."_ She looked around the court. _"With his power, it's not just suppressing, he can essentially negative or deactivate any magic attack or power-up we try to use, not to mention we don't know his maximum range, but there's no doubt it's far enough to reach anywhere on the court. It could be troublesome."_ But then Mika smirked. _"Unless of course…"_

Shirou just stood there, while his eyes were overshadowed by his bangs. _"Ridiculous."_

"Point to Sitri!" Momo announced, holding up a red flag and Akeno left the court.

"Here." Saito passed the ball to Tsubaki. "Try not to screw it up."

Tsubaki ignored that and she charged it with Demonic energy and cocked it back. She threw the ball at Rias. "Take this!"

As it closed in—

"You're all so ridiculous."

 **[BOOST!]**

 _POW!_

That ball was caught once again. This time the one who caught the ball was Shirou who was standing in front of Rias, with the ball in one hand and his Boosted Gear covering the other. Like Saito, when he caught the ball, he didn't flinch or budge even a little from where he was standing.

Sona, Tsubaki, and the rest of the council were surprised by how he did so with such little effort, while Saito just glared unsurprised.

 _"…Unless of course, the opponent is Big Bro."_ Mika finished her thought.

"Are you trying to equal me, Saito?" Shirou glared. "Don't get carried away."

"Point to Gremory!" Momo announced, holding up a white flag and Tsubaki left the court.

Now the court was left was only the two Kings and Pawns. In sports it would be the same as a two on two match between two captains and two aces. They were all emanating a strong pressure.

Saito groans. "You know what. Enough of this." He steps forward. "I'm done, doing this 'by the book' game with rules and limitations just isn't for me." He then stops directly in front of Shirou. "Tsukiharu, the only reason I'm still here is to beat you. Let's finish this the right way."

Shirou didn't back down. "I'll play your game. Here's how it works, you lose if you're hit by the ball, if you catch it then just throw it and hope it hits the other guy, use of Magic or Gear is allowed and it doesn't matter how you launch the ball so long as it hits." He listed. "That good enough?"

Saito nodded, ready. "Sounds good, let's do it!"

"Hold it." Sona stepped in. "We're already in the middle of a game that the two of us agreed upon. You can't just randomly change the rules to better suit your liking at the last minute."

"And why not?" Saito scowled. "You had no problem screwing with the rules earlier, yet there's a problem when I do it?"

"Saito, think." Sona scolded. "You are letting your own personal feelings dictate your actions, it isn't necessary to change the rules, even if you want to defeat Tsukiharu, you'll have to wait until after this match."

"Sona, you don't seem to get it." Saito wasn't convinced. "Of the two of us, you're the only one who cares about this match. I'm here because you dragged me into something you started because of _your_ own personal feelings. Honestly, the only thing I'm interested in right now is going against Tsukiharu," He then looks at both Rias and Sona. "So you two Princess need to shut up and stay out of the way."

After that, there was a silence in the court. The members of the Student Council were surprised that Saito would take such a forceful tone against Sona, someone who is both his master and known to be a strict disciplinarian. While the Occult Research Club was surprised by the fact that anyone besides Shirou would possess enough nerve to completely disregard the authority of his King.

Sona obviously didn't appreciate his tone and narrowed her eyes. "…Saito."

"You know, Sona." Rias spoke up, getting her attention before things escalated. "Why not let them do their thing."

"Sona stared back at her. "What?"

"It's obvious they won't budge on this, and clearly neither of them have any intention of following orders, so why not let them settle the outcome of this match." Rias suggested. "At this point, it might make for a better idea than just having us end in a tie again. And be honest, you're curious to see what would happen if they faced each other, like myself."

Sona just thought for a moment, trying to figure out the pros and cons of letting the game change like this, whether it was a good idea, and whether or not it would be the smarter decision to make. After a minute of thought, she simply sighed and turned around. "Saito, after talking to me like that, you won't be forgiven if you're defeated." Sona then stepped back from the court.

"Whatever." Saito brushed off.

Rias followed suit and distanced herself from Shirou. "It's all on you now."

"Then we've already won." Shirou replied confidently.

And with that settled, the court was now filled by one Devil from each side. The two delinquents were locked in a stare-down, both ready to go at any moment, radiating enough pressure that he could be felt by those who were just watching. Even though the was just a game they were acting as if this was no different from a fight or a high stakes battle. No one could look away.

 **Play OST Kuroko no Basket Unreleased - Unexpected (Full Version!)**

In an instant, the silence ended when Shirou made the first move. He gripped the ball and with a spin shot it across the field.

 **[BOOST!]**

 _SWISH!_

With the ball flying fast after Shirou's shot powered it up, it cut through the air like a bullet.

 **[DELETE!]**

 _POW!_

Once Saito activated his power the ball slowed down and once it was right in front of him, he punched it, sending it back.

Shirou glared at the ball be sent back and get ready to return the favour.

 **[BOOST!]**

 _POW!_

Shirou power up and punched the ball as well, shooting it back at Saito.

 **[DELETE!]**

Saito suppressed the ball power again and killed the momentum.

 _SWISH!_

He then held out his hand and used the strength behind the ball to spin himself in a 360-degree spin before shooting the ball at Shirou with increased speed.

Shirou saw how fast the ball was going and took a step forward, he lunged forward and clenched his fist.

 **[BOOST!]**

 _BASH!_

Once he powered himself up, Shirou raised his fist and punched it in a downward arch, knocking back while keeping it close to the floor.

Saito quickly ran back to reach the ball and slide himself on the ball while outstretching his arm in front of the path the ball was taking.

 **[DELETE!]**

Once he erased the power around the ball he caught it in his hand, then used his other arm to push his whole body up a few feet in the air. While in mid-air Saito flipped himself around and threw the ball.

 _SWISH!_

Shirou simply raised his arm and caught the ball as it was aimed at his head, he then lobbed it upwards and as it came back down he cocked back his arm.

 **[BOOST!]**

 _POW!_

As the ball came down in front of him, Shirou Boosted his power and hit it with a palm strike, firing it across the court.

 **[DELETE!]**

 _BASH!_

Saito deleted the power behind the ball once again and cocked back his fist, once the ball was close enough his punched it with a right cross and shot it at Shirou.

 **[BOOST!]**

Shirou jumped up and grabbed the ball in his right hand, then powered up still mid-air and threw the ball back at his foe.

 _SWISH!_

On the side-lines, everyone found themselves unable to tear their eyes away from what they were seeing. As the sparks flew from battle between the two aces, all those watching felt as if, rather than watching a Dodgeball game it was actually an all-out brawl. The way they kept hitting the ball back and forth like a game of Tennis, the way they could perfectly found the right method of catching to ball that could be followed by a counter-attack and the fact that they seemed to be able to do this so effortlessly. One wrong move would cost them the win. The question was who would it be, who will slip up first? Everyone watched because they didn't want to miss the moment that question was answered.

The only ones who weren't completely absorbed into the match were Sona and Mika. The two of them were watching the two one the court carefully trying to figure out who would win based on what they could see about their performance. While watching the game progress they both realized something, something that gave one of the two a chance that would determine the outcome of who would win, provide that one could figure it out.

 **[BOOST!]**

 _POW!_

 **[DELETE!]**

 _SWISH!_

 **[BOOST!]**

 _BANG!_

 **[DELETE!]**

 _POW!_

 **[BOOST!]**

 _SWISH!_

 **[DELETE!]**

 _BANG!_

As the two of them continued the seemingly never-ending cycle of hitting the ball back at each other. Shirou began to think.

 _"This is starting to get old."_ Shirou thought. _"I can keep returning the ball since my body is stronger now I can handle Boosting for a long time. But this won't get me anywhere. At this point, what we're doing is just an altered version of Ping-Pong. I need to hit him, but Saito's no amateur and he can clearly see the ball's speed and react in time to throw it back. Need to think."_

Shirou thought back to what he knew about Saito, his abilities, strengths and Sacred Gear.

 _"He has the power to suppress his opponents magic and power-ups."_ Shirou thought about that. _"Suppress, suppress, suppress…" He thought one that keyword until it came to him. "…Wait. That's right, he's not deactivating my Boosts. he just powering them down, that means his power has a weakness."_

 _"Saito's Delete Field has two weakness."_ Sona thought, watching the match continue. _"The first is that he can only suppress power depending on how much he himself is capable of. If the power is too strong he can't suppress it and—"_

 _"—The second is that; even if he can suppress the power, he only just weakens it to a lower level, in some cases, it's enough to completely nullify it."_ Mika thought, watching the match continue. _"But since Big Bro's doubled power is so great he can't Delete it all the way, he can only lessen it and because of that whenever he catches or hits the ball back—"_

 _"_ _—_ _It's moving faster and has more weight behind it than when he throws it back at Shirou."_ Sona thought. _"Meaning Saito is actually taking damage to his arm whenever the ball is sent back at him and is having more trouble the longer this game goes one, so if Shirou keeps this up—"_

 _"—I can win this by keeping up this pace until I break his hand."_ Shirou thought, thinking the same thing as the other two. _"But winning like that will take to long, so instead I'll just it hit him with something so strong he won't be able to weaken it." He then smirked. "Good thing I have a new move I've been waiting to try out."_

 _POW!_

Saito hit the ball back at Shirou and Shirou himself prepared himself to end this.

 **[BOOST!]**

 **[EXPLOSION!]**

Shirou's aura flared up so much that it was visible to those in the gym.

"Explosion?" Rias looked surprised. "But why do that now?"

Mika smiled. "So he _did_ figure it out, guess that settles it."

Saito narrowed his eyes. _"Explosion is the one that lets him sustain his Boosts for a short time. But what difference will that make now? What's he planning?"_

 _"Now for something courtesy of Ren."_ Shirou then power up and summoned his Touki, coating himself in his life energy that increased his strength by a wild margin, though his clear white Touki aura was almost camouflaged by the emerald green aura of the Boosted Gear, so not many could see or even notice it.

Shirou cocked his fist back when the ball got in close. "Try and stop this!"

 _BANG!_

This time when Shirou punched the ball, it sailed through the court much faster than it had at any other time during this match, if before it was comparable to a speeding bullet, now it was a burning meteorite slicing through the sky, and the target it was aimed at was Saito.

Saito knew it was coming too fast from him to dodge, and even if he could he would never try to dodge in the first place since to him, that would be the same as admitting defeat. Thus he attempted to stop it.

 **[DELETE!]**

 _PUSH!_

"Grr…" Once the ball came into Saito's hand he immediately felt the pressure behind it, it was a struggle to stay on his feet, he was being pushed back a few inches, and the ball felt so strong he felt like he was trying to catch a cannonball. It was taking all his remaining either to stop the ball's advance. On top of that, he could feel his hand about to break. "Gugh! It's too much, I can't suppress it! Where did he get this much power!"

His thoughts were cut off when he looked in front of him and saw that in a flash, Shirou was now standing right in front of him looking confident. And since he was struck trying to stop the ball, Saito couldn't move.

"Looks like you're having trouble, so I guess I'll finish it."

 **[TRANSFER!]**

Shirou clenched his fist and let all his power flow into his right hand. Soon his fist was covered in the same Crimson-Red energy that was used whenever he fired Dragon Blast, only this time instead of discharging it, he wrapped it around his fist making it into a blow that held power equal to the blast. With that added power of Touki behind it, increasing its destructive power.

"Saito, when will you learn." Shirou cocked his fist back and whispered. "I'm stronger than you."

"Grr…TSUKIHARU!" Saito roared.

 _ **DRAGON FORCE STRIKER!**_

"AAUUGGGHHH!" With a fierce strike Shirou unleashed his attack on Saito, the blow smashed into the ball and blow it and Saito away with a crushing force, knocking him off his feet and sending his flying away, and crashed into the wall behind him, before having him fall onto the floor. With that everyone could tell, the match was over.

 **[RESET!]**

 **Music Off**

Shirou's power returns to normal and he turns around. "That's win #158."

"Game over!" Momo announced. "Winner, Gremory Team!"

The Gremory team celebrated, while the Sitri team went over to Saito to see if he was alright.

Sona approached him. "Saito, you…" Sona stopped and looked at his hand with dismay. It was bruised black and clearly broken, two of his fingers were even bent. "…You need treatment."

Saito ignored her and tried to stand up.

Meanwhile, Shirou was walking away and Rias approached him with a satisfied expression. "Congratulations, you were impressive as always."

Shirou raised a brow. "What? You seriously think _that_ was impressive. Then you must have low standards."

Rias seemed amused by that. "Somehow I had a feeling you'd say something like that."

"Wait!" Saito called out, Shirou stopped but didn't turn to face him. "Tsukiharu, I may have lost this time but this isn't over, the only reason I couldn't beat you was because I wasn't strong enough this time. But next time, it won't be some stupid match on a court, it'll be a real fight."

Shirou didn't respond. _"You lost 'cause you weren't strong enough? Don't state the obvious, moron."_

"Aren't you going to say something back to him?" Rias asked.

"Huh? I'll get pissed if you joke like that." Shirou said before walking away. "A winner has nothing to say to a loser."

And with that Shirou left, shorty after Saito left himself.

Asia watched him leave and looked somewhat confused. "I don't get it. Shirou-san said he didn't care about getting a familiar, and Saito-san said the same thing. So why did they play so hard if they felt that way?"

"Oh Asia, you're so naïve." Mika told her in a patronizing tone. "Remember when I said Rias and Sona didn't care about who goes where and when anymore, all they care about now is beating each other in a contest. The same can be said for those two." She informed her. "Neither of them cared about the match, or familiars, or even their Kings, all they wanted was to beat each other. Once it came down to the two of them it became a fight for them, and when that happened all they could think of was how much they wanted to beat the other. That's what happens when men compete."

Asia looked confused. "I don't think I understand."

Mika patted her on the cheek. "You don't have to. It's something only those two or someone like them would understand."

While everyone else was talking, Koneko kept to herself and was deep in thought, thinking of what how Shirou had ended it and more importantly; what she had sensed from Shirou. That thought made her somewhat Afraid.

 _"…It couldn't be, there's no way that could have been Touki. Sempai doesn't know about Senjutsu and nobody could've taught him…I must have just imagined it."_ She tried to convince herself, for the sake of putting away her own personal worries.

As the court was being clear up, Sona went to talk to Rias.

"As much as I hate to lose." Sona said watching as her team made their way out of the gym, (Reya was now wearing a red tracksuit to replace her destroyed gym clothes) "I have to admit this was a lot of fun, especially the end. "But if this was a Rating Game instead of us just fooling around, there's no way you could have beat me."

"You really think so?" Rias asked confidently. "The way I see it, so long as I have the Tsukiharu siblings I can't see my group losing to anyone."

"Don't be so sure, Rias. True they are a formidable duo, but. You never what could happen." Sona said before walking away.

* * *

[Victory!] The Devils of the Occult Research Club cheered simultaneously as they _clinked_ their teacups together. Shirou just sat down and just enjoyed his drink.

"I'd like to tell each and every one of you that I appreciate you going out there and doing what was needed to be done to beat those Devils." Rias said to them as they stood around the table. "I hope you all feel proud. Especially you Shirou, our victory was thanks to you."

"She's right, you were great out there." Kiba praised him.

"I second that." Akeno agreed with her sweet smile.

Asia also smiled at him and Koneko nodded.

"Yes, I am indeed amazing." Shirou said with little care as he put down his cup and stood up. "But I don't see why you're all making such a big deal about it. I thought I already displayed my superiority over you guys awhile ago."

"There it is." Mika sat beside him. "You're not you unless you have the usual arrogance."

"I'm not being arrogant, it's my nature." Shirou corrected.

Rias then clapped her hands. "Now that everything has been settled, I'd say it's about time we find you three some familiars."

Knowing that was her cue, Akeno went over to active the teleportation circle.

"Wait you mean, we're getting them right now?" Asia asked.

"It's a full moon tonight, this is our best chance to see him." Rias explained.

"See who?" Mika asked.

"The Familiar Master."

Just as they were about to teleport. _"This better be worth it."_ Shirou thought.

* * *

When the circle vanished they had been transported to what appeared to be a forest as far as one could tell. The reason it was hard to tell was because there weren't many forests that looked like this. The trees were all dead and devoid of any leaves, or life of any kind, and the dark red sky could be seen through the branches. There was no sign of any life nearby.

"…This place?" Shirou asked, unconvinced. "This is a dump."

"Well, this is the forest where all familiars live." Akeno said.

"That's right. This is where we all got ours, too." Kiba assured them, Koneko nodded.

"It's really freaky out here." Asia said clinging to Shirou's back with a frightened expression.

"You think so?" Mika asked, also clinging to Shirou's back.

"Mika-san? Are you afraid too?"

Mika shook her head. "No, I just wanted to cling to my Brother, too."

Shirou facepalmed. "Where is this 'Familiar Master' anyway?"

"Get daze!"

"Kyaa!"

A new loud voice suddenly spoke out and made Asia jump in surprise. The one who appeared in front of them was a young man standing atop a tree branch, he was wearing rough clothing's, blue shorts, a tank top, a grey shirt tied around his waist, fingerless gloves, a large backpack, and a cap he wore backwards.

"My name is Satooji of Madara Town! I'm a Devil in training, aiming to become the Familiar Master!" The now named Satooji proclaimed.

"Wow." Mika gapped. "It's Ash Ketchum!"

"Could you not right now!" Shirou said back at her.

"Satooji-san, I brought the ones I spoke of."

Rias introduced them to the so-called Familiar Master.

"Hee. A Silver-haired Bishounen and two Bishougo's, one Black-haired and the other blonde huh." Satooji inspected. "OK! Leave it to me! If it's me any Familiar immediately would be 'get daze'!"

"Seriously." Shirou turned to Rias. "You dragged me here just to meet this outdated rip-off. If I wanted to see that I would've just watched webster."

"I know he seems strange, but he is a professional in terms of familiars." Rias assured him. "Today we will catch familiars in this forest while receiving advice from him. Okay?"

"Yes."

Only Asia nodded and responded to Rias.

While having that conversation, Satooji asks them in a friendly manner.

"Now, what type of Familiar do you desire? Strong one? Fast one? Or one with poison?"

"What do you have that's good?" Shirou asked.

Satooji smiles at his question and gets out something that looks like a catalogue. The one he points at is a creature with a great ferocity that is drawn out on the whole page.

"This is what I would recommend! One of the Dragon-Kings! Chaos Karma Dragon, Tiamat! It's a legendary dragon! It's also the only female among the Dragon-Kings! Even until now, there hasn't been a Devil who has caught her yet! That would be obvious! Since it's said to be as strong as a Satan!"

Shirou scratched his chin. "Hmm, sounds powerful, but how you even go about catching something like that?"

 **[I wouldn't recommend trying it.]**

Upon hearing Ddraig's voice Shirou turned his attention to his arm.

 _"Why not, Ddraig?"_

Shirou communicated with Ddraig telepathically.

 **[While it is true that Tiamat is the Strongest among the Dragon-Kings, she is also a great danger to you exclusively.]**

 _"Why me? What did I do?"_

 **[Nothing. The reason you'd be in danger is because you possess me. The fact of the matter is that due to reasons I will not get into, Tiamat Loathes and despises me and thus will do everything in her power to kill me, or in this case my possessor, in the form of proxy. Even in the past, there were times when those who possessed my Sacred Gear came into contact with Tiamat and were killed by her.]**

 _"So basically, if I try and find her I'll get caught up in your mess. Fine, no Tiamat."_

"That sounds good. It seems like they will get along since they are both legendary Dragons. Shirou." Rias turned to the Devil in question. "You are my adorable servant, so it might be acceptable if you can pull that off."

"First of all, don't call me that." Shirou said back to her, irritated. "Second, hate to break it to you but it's not happening." He lifted his left hand. "According to the big guy in my Gear, Tiamat + Sekiryuutei = Death Match. And do any of you think that's a good idea?"

Rias thought for a second before letting out a defeated sigh. "I suppose not." She turned back to Satooji. "Is there anything else you can recommend?"

"Hahaha! I see, then how about this one? Hydra!"

This time Satooji showed them an illustration of a gigantic serpent with many heads. It has sharp eyes, sharp fangs and there is a poisonous mark of a skeleton on the illustration and there are actually skulls around the serpent in this illustration.

"This one is amazing! It has deadly poison! There are no Devils in this World which can endure its poison! On top of that, it is immortal! The worst creature in the World which even kills its master! See? Pretty useful right?"

Shirou remembered the last time he met something immortal and cringed. "I don't get along with things that are 'immortal', what else you got?"

"This boy sure has lots of requests. Then, what would you prefer?" Satooji asked.

"I don't really care what I get. I'll just look around until I see something I like."

Satooji makes a sound with his tongue with an unpleasant expression.

"That's why newbie's don't understand anything. Listen? You have to catch powerful familiars. And each one has different abilities. If you are trying to become a Familiar-Master then you have to catch the same one several times, and then pick the strongest male and female among them. You have the two breed and make them give birth to their baby with strong abilities. And also-Ouch!"

He was interrupted when Shirou throw a rock at him.

"I didn't come here to get a crash course on Pokemon!" Shirou yelled at him. He then looks at Asia and Mika. "Forget it, you two try asking."

"Okay." Mika stepped forward. "I want a familiar that's unique."

"I also want a cute familiar.

Asia said while still hiding behind Shirou.

"Okay, I understand."

Satooji immediately replied.

Later, the group of Devils were walking along the forest, following the Familiar Master who was acting as their guide.

"A Sprite Dragon?"

Satooji nods at Shirou's question.

"Yeah, the Sprite Dragon. Just like its name, it's a Dragon which uses blue lightning."

Apparently, right now there is a super rare Dragon which flew into the depth of this forest. Satooji suggested that maybe it would be good to catch that.

"But what kind of Dragon is a Sprite Dragon?" Mika asked.

When she asked that question, Satooji smiled.

"Apparently it is still a baby. If you are going to catch it, now is the time. You would definitely not be able to catch it once it matures. It won't be as strong as Dragon-Kings, but it's placed in the Top-tier classes for Dragons." Satooji explained

 _"A Top-tier Dragon huh?"_ Shirou thought, somewhat excited.

Mika saw his expression and almost laughed. _"And of course, he wants to fight it."_

"Owa!"

While they were thinking, Satooji made a loud sound. When the group looked to see what it is about, they saw a Dragon-looking creature which is about the size of an eagle is resting on a branch, with scales which were a glowing blue.

"Sprite Dragon! That is it!" Satooji said excited about it.

"That's the Dragon?" Shirou asked disappointed.

"It's so cute." Asia said in wonder.

"Cute, but dangerous too." Satooji warned. "It's still young, but it can shoot lightning when angered."

"This certainly is the first time I've ever seen one." Rias admired.

"If you want to claim it then do it now, once it's fully grown it can no longer be tamed." The Familiar Master informed them.

"Shirou-kun, since you possess the power of the Red Dragon Emperor, that Dragon might be a really good fit." Akeno suggested.

Shirou scratched his head. "I don't know, it's not really what I had in mind. I mean if it was bigger than—"

"KYYAA!"

He was cut off and recognizing the sound of Asia's scream, everyone turned their heads. Raining down on the blonde was what appeared to be a green slime-like, gooey substance that dropped from above. However, she wasn't the only one. To the left, Rias and Akeno also moaned as slime dropped onto them.

"O-Oh my!" Rias cried out as she and Asia made noises of discomfort, while Akeno had a pleasured smile.

"It's green slime!" Kiba exclaimed drawing his sword to attack but was cut off when some of it got on his face.

"It's burning away my clothes!" Rias said out loud as bits and pieces of her uniform was meeting away.

"How naughty~" Akeno moaned, as her clothes were eaten away by the slime, revealing her bra. "I'm so slimy and wet~"

"Ah, No!" Rias cried out, as her uniform was almost completely gone.

"Ahhn, my skirt!" Asia cried out, as the entire lower half of her uniform was gone.

Koneko just stood there looking uncomfortable as her clothes were also being eaten away.

Kiba kept trying to remove the slime on his face. "Dammit."

Shirou just went up to him and ripped it off. He then looked at him with half-lidded eyes. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Knight who can't stop a slime."

"Sorry." Kiba responded apologetically.

"And you guys." Shirou turned to the girls, annoyed. "What are you even doing? just blast yourself free with magic."

The slimes then wrapped themselves around the girl's arms like tentacles, and while doing so even more of their clothes started to melt away, even the underwear, the moaning continued too.

"My hands are tied, I can't use my magic like this." Rias said, in discomfort.

"Me neither, how are we going to get of this mess!" Akeno cried out.

"Makes sense, it's normal for slimes to seal your powers." Mika stated. "It makes it harder to break free."

"Why aren't you caught in this!" Rias asked out, through her moans.

"Hehehe, because after years of watching some many different Anime, I know all there is to know about slimes." Mika proclaimed proudly. "And I always knew I face one someday, that's why I have a countermeasure. For example, when facing a slime always stand close to the Protagonist and you'll be safe, in this case, the Brotagonist."

She holds up her hand and gathers Demonic Power. "And, this is a spell I learned specifically to combat slimes, or any kind of weird monster really."

 _ **EXTERMINATION RAY!**_

A red magic-circle appeared in front of her hand and a white beam of light shot out, aimed at the female Devils before her, once it came in contact with them, they were completely consumed by a blinding light and before they knew it, the slimes were completely blown away, along with every remaining stitch of clothing on their bodies.

"Iyah!" Asia cried out.

The now Naked Devils covered their modesty (Expect for a shameless Akeno, who didn't seem to mind). While Mika looked satisfied.

"Success."

"What was that?" Rias asked.

"My new spell, it's something I recently came up with after facing that Chimera a little while ago, It's a spell that destroys any creature that doesn't have a human form." Mika explained. "I figured the perfect target to use it on was those slimes."

"Then, why are we Naked?" Akeno asked.

Mika shrugged. "I had to prioritize the destruction part, so even if the spell won't hurt you, you'll still feel the impact. In this case, enough impact to blow away your clothes. But since you barely had any left by that point, it's a moot point."

Shirou narrowed his eyes at her. "You know, something tells me you preferred it this way."

Mika responded with a tiny grin. "Oh, was it that obvious?"

"Well, in any case, I'm just relieved it's over." Rias decided, as she, Akeno, Koneko, and Asia walked forward to stand with the group, though Asia kept herself hidden behind Koneko to cover her shame.

"Wait, not yet!" Kiba said alarmed. "There's still some left."

He pointed to their right, and as he said there was still a small piece of slime left behind.

"I'll take care of this." Rias conjured a ball of Demonic Power in her hand. "Everyone, step back."

 _ZAP!_

However, before she could the slime was already hit by something else, it was burned to ash by a small bolt of blue lightning. Everyone looked up and saw the Sprite Dragon was responsible and currently flying around above them. He then came down and settled on Asia's shoulder.

"The Sprite Dragon?" Shirou wondered.

"Guess he likes Asia." Mika noted.

"I hear that Sprite Dragons open up to those with pure hearts. It seems like it really is attached to that girl." Satooji explained.

"Well isn't that convenient." Shirou noted dryly.

"U-Umm, can I make this Dragon my familiar?" Asia asked.

"Very well then." Rias said. "Let's begin the contract ceremony. Like I showed you."

Asia nodded and held out her hands. She opened a green magic-circle in front of the group. The Sprite Dragon is located in the middle of the magic circle, and the contract ceremony between Asia and the familiar was about to take place.

"In the name of A-Asia Argento, I order you! Y-You shall become my familiar and respond to my contract!"

With those words, the magic-circle vanished and the ceremony was successful.

"Normally the Sprite Dragon is a dragon who won't pledge to a Devil, but it seems that girl has a very pure heart. Something like this has never happened before, but it seems like the contract ceremony will finish safely." Satooji told them.

Kiba then looked to the Tsukiharu siblings. "Are you two okay? In the end, we never found familiars for the two of you."

Shirou shrugged. "I was never really into all this."

"And I got to try out my spell, so I'm satisfied." Mika agreed.

When everything was settled the baby dragon flew to Asia and started to play with her.

"Ufufu. You are tickling me. Byakurai-kun." Asia scolded.

"Byakurai?" Shirou questioned.

"Yes. He is a Dragon which uses Pale Lightning so I gave him the name Byakurai." Asia said shyly. "…Would it trouble you?"

Shirou brushed it off. "What do I care, he's your familiar."

Just as he said that the Sprite Dragon flew out of Asia's arms and made his way over to Shirou. He then landed on his shoulder.

"Aww~ He likes you." Akeno noted.

"Which is odd." Satooji looked confused. "Sprite Dragon's are supposed to hate the males of any species. Never seen one take a looking to a guy before."

"Your still here?" Shirou looked as though he just remembered the Familiar Master's presence.

While they were talking, Mika went over to Asia and whispered to her. "Let me guess, you actually named him Byakurai because it can also mean 'White Lightning', the Lightning meaning Rai, and the White being Shirou because you wanted to name him after Big Bro."

Having heard that, Asia blushed up which confirmed Mika's suspicion.

"I knew it." Mika whispered. "Just be happy on the fact that he doesn't seem to notice."

After they were done, Byakurai flew off Shirou's shoulder and bite into his sleeve, while trying to fly in the direction behind him. He seemed almost frantic.

"What's wrong with him?" Akeno asked.

"Looks like he wants you to follow him." Satooji guessed.

Shirou stared at the desperate baby Dragon and thought about it. "All right, let's go. But first." Shirou looked back at the rest of the group. "Put some clothes on."

He pointed out the state of dress (Or lack thereof) most of the girls were in, and it almost seemed like they just remembered themselves that they were nude. An awkward silence soon came after.

* * *

After walking deeper and deeper into the forest, with a Sprite Dragon as their guide this time, the Gremory curious to see what he wanted to show them continued their hike. The girls' were now dressed again and Satooji decided to go with them to see what was in store. Soon they got their answer in the form of a large rocky cave.

"In there?" Shirou asked Byakurai.

The Sprite Dragon gestured yes and flew off inside.

"Wait!" Asia went after him and the rest followed.

Once they were inside the cave, what they saw was something that none of them were expecting. Resting on a small rock was Byakurai, and next to him was something that looked like a Sword-hilt that was half-buried.

"Is that a Sword?" Kiba asked.

"Why would he want to lead us to a Sword?" Asia asked.

Rias turned to Satooji. "What is that?"

"Beats me." Satooji responded. "I'm a Familiar Master, not a Sword Master."

"Then get lost, we're done with you." Shirou told him.

Satooji looked shocked at hearing that, then walking away in a pout.

"That wasn't very nice, Shirou."

"Oh Shut up." Shirou brushed off Rias' attempt to scold him and went closer to the buried Sword. "I get the feeling this isn't an ordinary Sword.

It was something that was almost instinctual, Shirou could feel the Sword calling out to him like there was something familiar about it, more specifically like it was something he had been separated from for a long amount of time and was finally reunited with. At the same time, he knew he had never seen it before yet was still drawn to it.

As he stopped right in front of it, Shirou placed his hand on the hilt and pulled the Sword out of the ground. When he lifted it up the Sword was revealed. The blade was a beautiful and four feet long, the grip of the blade was a pure white, while the pommel was in the shape of a red Dragon claw with a green gem in its grasp. The hilt of the Sword was the same dark red as the Dragon claw pommel but the design was that of two Dragon wings with a Dragon head that looked very much like Ddraig in the centre. The Sheath of the Sword was pitch-black.

Shirou didn't know why, but he felt like he knew the name of this Sword.

 **[Incredible, I almost thought I'd never see it again.]**

Shirou blinked, surprised when he heard Ddraig.

 _"What do you mean? You know what this Sword is."_

 **[Yes, That Sword is Dyrnwyn: The Sword of the Red Dragon.]**

 _"… Sword of the Red Dragon? You mean this is your Sword?"_

 **[Close but no. This Sword was created a long time ago, back when The Three Factions were still at war. During that age there was a Great power that stood before me, even though he didn't have to power to defeat me, his true objective was to crave off some of my scales, and when he succeeded he brought them to the Legendary Blacksmith: Wayland Smith.]**

 _"Wayland Smith, He existed?… Hold on. If he brought scales from you to a Blacksmith, then does that mean he used them to forge a Sword? This Sword?"_

 **[You catch on quick. That's right, Dyrnwyn is that Sword, and it is currently in your hands.]**

 _"Then why is such an important Sword in a dump like this?"_

 **[The one who asked for the Sword to be made had miscalculated the aspects of the Sword. Dyrnwyn is not a Sword that can be wielded by just anyone. For starters, it can only be wielded by one who possesses my Sacred Gear. In this case, you. And on top of that, it is also a Holy Sword.]**

 _"Holy Sword? What difference does that make? I mean I get the whole needing the Boosted Gear though."_

 **[Actually it matters greatly, you see Holy Sword are extremely powerful but can't be used by just anyone. Being able to wield one is a trait you have to be born with, either you can or you can't. So that fact that you must be a Holy Sword wielder, as well as the Red Dragon Emperor, meant the number of people able to use Dyrnwyn was incredibly small. The number of people who did end up wielding is a number you could count with one hand.]**

 _"Oh, it's one of those kinds of Swords. Guess the guy who asked for it should have been clearer on what type he wanted."_

 **[Indeed. Truth is I haven't seen it in centuries. A few of my former partners could wield it, but after a while it became lost. I'm surprised that it would be here.]**

Shirou looked at it for a moment and wondered. _"Do you think I can wield it?"_

 **[Who knows, since you are the Red Dragon Emperor you can hold the Sword at least if you weren't the Holy element of the Sword would already be burning you. As for whether or not you can wield it, you'll have to find out for yourself. If you draw the Sword and its aura flares that means you can.]**

 _"So I just need to draw it."_

With that information, Shirou placed his other hand on the Sheath of the Sword and unsheathed it. Upon doing so a bright-red blade was revealed and once it was a Golden-light aura started to emanate from the Sword, surrounding it.

 **[What a surprise. It seems you can indeed wield Dynrwyn.]**

 _"Not bad."_ Shirou examined the Sword and felt both impressed by its power and satisfied by the fact that he could use it.

"Shirou?" The voice of Rias broke Shirou out of his internal conversation with Ddraig and he turned to see the shocked faces of all the others standing next to him, though they soon take a few steps back, considering that as Devils the Holy energy was giving them chills. They had the expression of as if they had seen a ghost, although Mika just looked curious and Kiba seemed almost like he was frozen with shock.

Shirou blinked. "What?"

"What?!" Rias repeated, not knowing how to respond to this situation. "What is that Sword, and how are you holding a Holy Sword without dying?!"

"Oh, that. Let me explain."

 **One Explanation Later...**

"And that's basically it." Shirou finished.

"I see." Rias said, still feeling a little shock. "A Sword made from the Red Dragon, for the Red Dragon Emperor."

"Yeah, it was literally made for me," Shirou proclaimed. "Can you believe my luck, finding here of all places."

"That must of been why Byakurai-kun brought you here." Asia suggested, before turning to her familiar. "Right?"

The Sprite Dragon nodded.

"Well how about that," Mika noted. "So instead of getting a familiar, you get a weapon, are you glad you came now, Broboa?"

"You bet I am, how cares about getting some pet when I got a Badass Sword like this." Shirou exclaimed gladly.

 **[It's more than just that.]**

Ddraig informed Shirou, which made him curious. "More, what do you mean?"

After asking the Dragon sealed inside his arm, he heard an answer.

 **[Dynrwyn isn't just a weapon for you to use, it's also made from parts of my original body, being in contact with it will likely increase your power, even only slightly.]**

Shirou was surprised at that. "I can get stronger just by having the Sword?"

 **[Not can, you already have. You may not have noticed yet but your combat abilities have already increased a bit.]**

Ddraig corrected him. Shirou took in this new revelation and it just seemed to satisfy him more. _"Yes… More power, I never get tired of hearing that."_

"Still, this is completely unexpected, I never once would've thought that you would turn out to be a Holy Sword user." Rias said amazed. "And a natural one at that."

"Natural?" Shirou said confused, not familiar with the concept.

"Ara, Ara, a Devil who can use a Holy Sword, that'll give you a major advantage when facing other Devil." Akeno noted. "It seems you just keep getting stronger by the day."

Shirou lowered Dynrwyn and sheathed it. "Yeah but, it just dawned on me that I don't really have much experience in Sword fighting. I mean I know how to use one, but I've never fought some else with one." Shirou then remembered the group had someone who used Swords, exclusively. "Hey Kiba, do you—"

Shirou paused when he noticed the look on the blonde's face and it was not a friendly one. In stark contrast to his usual friendly, sparkling, almost Prince-like smile, Kiba had an expression of pure hatred, his face was dark, eyes that were glaring daggers, a gaze that could freeze the soul, and his whole body was seething with rage. He liked like he wanted blood like he wanted to kill someone.

Shirou wasn't unused to seeing this expression, he had seen it all the time on his enemies and it never bothered him. But this time Shirou was at a loss, for two reasons; the first being the obvious fact that it was Kiba of all people who was giving him this look when, until now he had never seen Kiba so much as scowl. And two, the weird thing was, Kiba's gaze wasn't actually aimed at Shirou himself, but at the Sword he was holding.

"Kiba… What's wrong?" Shirou asked, confused.

Kiba turned around and faced away from the group. "It's nothing." He spoke in an unusually cold tone. "I just agree with the Chief, it really is a surprise that you can wield a Holy Sword."

"Yuuto." Rias said his name, both her tone and her expression was very quiet and filled with sympathy, it was as if she was witnessing something upsetting. Whatever it was, Koneko and Akeno seemed to be aware of it as well, since they also had a similar expression.

The Knight in question started to walk away, still not facing the others. "Things like this happen, huh. To think I'd see it in an unexpected place. And to think you of all people could wield it, Shirou-kun… I wonder, is this simply fate."

And with that, Kiba had left the cave. Leaving the others still inside, while Shirou, Mika, and Asia were still left out of the loop on whatever reason he had for reacting in such a manner was.

"What the hell was that all about?" Shirou questioned.

Rias turned to him still upset. "…It's complicated."

* * *

Unbeknownst to the Devils of Kuoh was that the old abandon Church that was used as a base by the now-deceased Fallen Angel Raynare was about to have two new visitors enter it. As the sky began to rain heavily, two cloaked figures walked inside. The two were wearing White cloaks with Gold and Blue accents. However, one of them had what seemed like a large Sword that was wrapped completely in White cloth. Their heads and most of their faces were hidden by the cloak's hoods.

After walking down the aisle, the figures stopped in front of the broken cross at the back of the sanctuary. "I'd say that utter ruins describes it." Said the one with the large Sword. Their voice indicated that she was a woman.

"Rumor has it that there was a disturbance here recently," Said the other one, who also sounded like a young woman. "Caused by a Fallen Angel and a Devil."

"It's getting late." The first girl said, before taking her hood off with a hand that was covered with a black fingerless glove that extended to her biceps. Revealing herself a beautiful young woman with chin-length dark blue hair with a dyed green fringe on the right side and hazel-yellow eyes. "And you're certain this is it? We're supposed to be meeting him here right?"

"Oh please, like I would be wrong." The other girl said with a cheerful smile, after taking off her hood. She was a beautiful young woman with chestnut-brown hair, tied into twintails, each held by a blue scrunchy, and violet eyes. "On top of that, I lived in this city with my parents as a kid." The girl said as she held up a photograph. "Give me a little credit okay."

The photo she was holding showed a picture of two young children sitting together outside a small house, next to a tree, during a bright sunny day. One looked happy and cheerful, while the other just closed his eyes and looked away from the camera like he was huffing.

The cheerful one resembled the girl holding the picture so it was obviously her. Surprising though, the other child in the picture had a strong resemblance to the Devil who was once human known as Shirou Tsukiharu, he even had Shirou's unmistakeable Silver-hair.

Things were about to get hectic again.

* * *

 **And that's the chapter, and let me start off by saying yes Shirou and Mika train a lot, but I want them to be strong characters and I prefer characters who are powerful because they train, not just because of Plot-armor.**

 **Also as you can see, Shirou already has the desire to become a High-Class Devil, but even though it takes a while for him to be one because annoying reason like society and the Purist in the government, trust me when I say Shirou will Rank-up much faster than Issei did in the canon. And being a High-Class Devil won't be his all-time goal, he'll have a bigger one later.**

 **Now as you can see, Saito is back. I had always planned on having Saito be a member of the Sitri Peerage, like ho I had Shirou replace Issei, I decided to replace Saji as well, why because I didn't like either of them that much. Saji was too whiny and annoying, always Sona this and Sona that, without any real goals or aspirations of his own, besides being a Servant the rest of his life. So I chose to replace him with someone I think will be better.**

 **For those of you who don't know, Delete Field is a Sacred Gear that belongs to the Prison Dragon, like the Absorption Line that Saji had, I just decided to give him a different one because I thought Delete Field would be a good one to have, he'll still end up getting all four of them later on though, so don't worry.** **Plus when it came to the Dodgeball match I wanted to use it as another chance to have them fight again, since it's been a while and I wanted to demonstrate how the abilities as Devils match up.**

 **Moving on, Shirou is still training with Ren and he can now use Touki, I always planned and Shirou having the power of Touki and he will soon be very adept with it, he will also gain the power of Senjutsu but that'll come later down the road. And even though Ren told him the dangers of Senjutsu he still wanted to learn it, because Shirou can't say no to more power. But there's a certain someone from the Gremory group who won't react well once she finds out.**

 **Finally, to address the ending, yes I made Shirou a True-Holy Sword wielder, the reason being that Shirou is a natural-born prodigy when it comes to battle so I wanted him to have a weapon he could use, and since there will be a lot of Swords in the next Arc I figured he should have one too. And for those of you who don't know, Dynrwyn isn't my idea, I borrowed the idea for a different fanfic called the Maverick Emperor by FenrisFlitiarn, go check it out it's good. The fact is though, even though he introduced the Sword, after a while, it just faded off into the background, which I felt was a waste so I decided to use the concept myself. Though how it was introduced was different.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review, if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	19. Holy Swords And Dreams Of Revenge

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This chapter will be the start of the Excalibur Arc. And like the others, there will be some changes to the canon but hey this is my story so that's the idea. The point is there will be interesting developments in this Arc and a lot of answered questions. In particular, in this chapter you will also learn how Shirou got his scars and what his dream is.**

 **This chapter will also involve some fight scenes and information that will be relevant later so pay attention. Though honestly, I wanted this chapter to be a bit longer but what can you do. Hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Holy Swords And Dreams Of Revenge**

* * *

"The Holy-Sword Project?"

Rias nodded at Shirou's words.

"Yes. Yuuto is a survivor of that project."

Asia, Rias and Shirou had already returned to Shirou's house after they finished club activities. It had been a day since they went to the Familiars forest and in that time Kiba hadn't shown up at the clubroom, Shirou confronted Rias and wanted to know why Kiba reacted in such a way after seeing him hold Dyrnwyn. Rias and Asia came into his room. Rias was sitting on a chair, Asia was sitting on the bed, while Shirou was standing. Rias had started to tell them about Kiba.

"There was a project several years ago inside the Christian Church that aimed to make those who can wield the Holy-sword Excalibur."

"…This is my first time hearing this." Asia spoke out.

 _"That doesn't mean much considering you were just a tool used for healing to them, not to mention you were easy to control, it's obvious they wouldn't tell you anything big."_ Shirou thought dryly.

"Holy-Swords are the ultimate weapons against Devils. If we, the Devils, touch the Holy Sword then we will burn ourselves. If we get cut by it, then we will be terminated without a trace. It could be called the ultimate weapon for those who believe in God and see Devils as an enemy."

"Well yeah, that's natural, I mean Angels and Fallen Angels already use Holy aura so it would only make sense they would put that Holy attribute into weapons like Holy-Swords." Shirou reasoned.

"That's true, but even then Excalibur is a special case." Rias explained. "Even though there are numerous Holy-Swords originating from all over the world, I still think the most famous one would be Excalibur. Even in Japan, it comes up in many books. It's a Holy weapon that is created through means of magic and alchemy by those who reach the territory of God. But Holy-Swords choose their wielders, just like how Dyrnwyn chose you. I hear that only one person in a decade or so gets chosen."

"Well personally, I say Excalibur is overrated." Shirou argued. "Regardless of how often it's brought up in a bunch of different stories, there are still other Swords that have accomplished just as much if not more than Excalibur. Like Arondight wielded by Lancelot who was the Strongest Knight of the Round table and said to be able to cut anything in the world. Or Durandal wielded by the Paladin Roland that was used to single-handedly defeat an army of 100,000 men." He listed. "Or how about, my favourite; Caliburn a Sword that was also wielded by King Arthur just like Excalibur, expect it was known as the 'Beyond Strongest Holy Sword'."

Rias and Asia blinked, looking at him surprised.

"I wasn't aware that you were so informed about Legendary Holy-Swords, Shirou."

"I've had a fascination on fabled weapons ever since I was a kid, and it's not exclusive to Swords just so you know." Shirou clarified.

"In any case, the fact remains that Excalibur is still a Sword that is both known and feared by the Underworld since ancient times. Even the Holy-element Longinus-Class Sacred Gear don't have the power to match it."

"There are Holy-element Longinus now?" Shirou asked surprised. "Why am I just now hearing about this? So are there Sacred Gears that make Holy-Swords too?"

"It's not like there aren't. But if you compare it to the Holy-Swords that already exist, it is kind of lacking. Of course, I'm not saying it's weak. Among them, there is a Sacred utensil included in the 'Longinus', just like your 'Boosted Gear'. The most famous is the Sacred Gear that was wielded by the person who killed Jesus Christ, the "True Longinus". It's also said that the name "Longinus" was derived from it."

"Wait what? You mean the Spear Saint Longinus used to kill the crucified Jesus, that's the number one Sacred Gear?" Shirou questioned.

"That's right because it was able to pierce and kill the son of God it became a Sacred Treasure, one with an almost Insurmountable amount of Holy-Aura that can even vaporize an Ultimate-Class Devil with just one strike." Rias explained. "Of all the Longinus, True Longinus is the one that has the most potential to kill a God if mastered."

"…So, you're that an ordinary Spear that was used to kill a Demi-God that was already at his dying breath became the Strongest Holy weapon that can kill a God, given the right training." Shirou summarized. "…Is that how it works?… That cannot be how it works."

Rias just sighed. "I know it sounds strange but that's how it happened. But to the Holy-Swords, at this point, there isn't a Holy Sacred Gear that can compete with Excalibur, Durandal or Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi because these Holy-Swords are too powerful. It's the same with the Demonic-Swords."

"Yeah, we still haven't addressed the elephant in the room." Shirou noted.

"Elephant? Where?" Asia asked in a innocent and confused tone.

Shirou face-palmed. "I have got to stop using metaphors in front of you." He groaned, before turning back to Rias. "I mean the main issue, what does Kiba have to do with all this."

"Yuuto and those involved with the project received artificial treatment to adapt to the Holy-Sword, particularly the Excalibur." Rias answered.

"Artificial?"

Shirou still seemed confused.

"Holy-Swords are a threat to Devils, but are greatest advantage is that only a so few number of people can use them. It has to be a trait that you are born with, either you can or you can't. That's why we were so surprised when you turned out to be one yourself."

"So that's what you meant when you said natural." Shirou realized.

"Yes, but the Church decided that was too much of a problem and so they attempted at a project that would create more Holy-Sword users, so instead of them being born, they would be made." Rias continued. "To do so, they gathered up a group of orphaned children and used them to try and create Holy-Sword users to wield Excalibur."

"But, why would they use children for such an experiment?" Asia asked.

"That's obvious." Shirou clenched his fist and narrowed his eyes. "Because this was an under-the-table operation. They wanted this to work without caring in the least about those involved or the consequences. And what better target than children who can't fight back or even question what adults tell them? They probably told them 'What you're doing is in the name of God' or some other crap like that to get them to comply and even if they didn't, it wasn't like they could do anything about it."

"No, that's cruel. That's too cruel." Asia said teary-eyed.

" _That's_ the Church." Shirou replied.

"Unfortunately, that's also the truth. But the real tragedy came after that." Rias said, closing her eyes upset. "Yuuto couldn't adapt to the Holy-Swords. Not only Yuuto, but it seems like everyone who received a treatment similar to Yuuto's couldn't either…"

"And let me guess, because they weren't successful, the ones running the project decided to pull the plug on them. In other words…"

"I'm afraid it's just what you're thinking." Rias confirmed Shirou's words. "The people of the Church decided to view the ones who couldn't adapt to the Holy-Swords as "Defective products" and disposed of them." Rias' eyes changed because she also felt discomfort. "Most of the people experimented on were killed including Yuuto. Only because they couldn't adapt to the Holy-Swords…"

"…It can't be. It's not an acceptable act by those who serve God." Asia said with grief.

It seems like this was a big shock for Asia. Her eyes were now covered with tears.

 _"Is there no low they will not sink…"_ Shirou thought, feel his wrath build up inside.

"They, the people of the Church, call us Devils an evil existence, but I think the bad intentions of humans are the greatest evil in this world." Rias said with sad eyes.

"I say you're both evil." Shirou said, which surprised Rias. "There's no doubt that Devils are evil, our very existence born from sin, but the fact is that we don't deny it or try to change because that is what makes us Devils. To a certain extent anyway." Shirou reasoned. "But for them, all they care about is what they feel is right to them. From their perspective because they're destroying what they say is evil, in this case Devils, everything they do is right, no matter what it is."

Rias took all that in and she nodded. "Yes, I think that's much closer to the truth."

"So then, how did Kiba end up becoming your Knight?" Shirou asked.

"When all the children were going to be disposed of, one of them was able to escape, despite being at the brink of death himself. That child was Yuuto. When I reincarnated Yuuto into a Devil, that boy was swearing for his revenge even when he was in a critical situation." Rias reminisced distraughtly. "Because his talents were being used for Holy-Swords since he was born, I wanted him to use his talents as a Devil. Yuuto's talent at using Swords would be a waste for only using it for Holy-Swords."

"So instead you had him us Demonic-Swords, kind of a random decision don't you think?" Shirou asked. "I'm mean, it just happened to be a coincidence that he was born with Sword-Birth."

"Maybe, but I was happy nonetheless that he was able to awaken to his true potential." Rias said. "But sadly, That boy couldn't forget about it. The Holy-Swords. Those who were involved with the Holy-Swords. And the people of the Church…"

 _"Is she that clueless?"_ Shirou thought. _"It's natural he couldn't forget, they ruined his life and for what? A failed experiment. Anybody would what revenge after that. I'd be surprised if he did forget."_

Rias let out a sigh. "Anyway, I will just watch over him for now. Right now his head is full of the feelings he has towards the Holy-Swords. But I hope he returns to his usual self."

"I seriously doubt that's going to happen." Shirou argued. "You saw how he was, it's pretty clear that his old-self won't be around any time soon."

"Why do you think that?" Rias asked.

"Are you really that naive?" Shirou asked annoyed. "You just told me what happened to him, he lost his friends, his childhood and even his life. And for what? For some stupid Sword. Of course, he wouldn't be able to just take that and move on. The past follows you no matter where you go. This was always his end game, what he was always thinking deep down, now it's just on the outside."

"That can't be!" Rias denied. "Ever since that day I've done everything I could to show him a better way, a peaceful life, a place where he can belong, a family. Those are all things he has now, and it gave him back his smile, he wouldn't—"

"—What makes you think any of that was enough to erase the pain he felt when he lost everything?!" Shirou cut her off. "After a person feels like they lost everything, that feeling can't just go away over time. No matter how much you smother them or try to make them forget about it, that feeling stays with you, maybe even for the rest of your life, you can't just expect someone to move on and forget about it." He said emotionally. "A family? His smile? Just because you can smile doesn't always mean you're happy, it just means you've gotten better at hiding your emotions and no offence but, you can't just find someone who lost the only family they had and think that saying 'You'll have a new family' will make them feel better. Without any real closure that can just make them feel worse."

Both Rias and Asia were completely taken aback. Neither one of them expected Shirou to responded in such a manner or to show such emotion. One might think he this wasn't about Kiba any more. The Golden-haired Bishop and the Crimson-haired King just stayed silent for a bit, not knowing what to say at this point.

Shirou himself realized he had said more than he meant to and tried to write it off.

"A-Anyway, that's probably how Kiba feels about it right now." Shirou said while averting his gaze.

Both of them could tell he was partly referring to himself and most likely he was speaking from experience, but neither of them asked because they were worried they would end up hurting him by bringing up a touchy subject. Thus they set it aside.

"Still though, I guess seeing a Holy-Sword got him triggered." Shirou noted. "Then again, after what happened it's not surprising that Holy-Swords are his trigger-warning."

"It's still a surprise to me that you're a natural-born Holy-Sword wielder, Shirou." Rias went along with the change of subject. "Is there someone you know who is related to the Church?"

"Nothing big. My whole family used to be Christians… When my parents were still around." Shirou said that last part sore and bitter. "But right now I'm a Non-Believer and I don't know where Mika stands on this."

"What about relatives?" Rias asked.

"We have none." He said immediately. "And even if we did, I wouldn't know, the only family I've ever had is either in this house or dead.

"I'm sorry." Rias said. Her voice was soft but hurt.

"Although, if you probe me for information. I do remember something. When I was just a kid, there was a Christian family living right next to us. They came by almost every day and they were really close with my parents, they even had a kid that was a year younger than me so we saw them really often. They were huge believers too."

"Then where is this family now?" Asia asked.

"They moved overseas after a while, and if you want to know what they looked like then I can only describe them from memory because there are no pictures of them. Shame though, I didn't hate them. Expect the kid was kind of weird." Shirou reminisced.

"Weird how?" Rias asked.

"J-Just weird all right. And that is the end of that discussion." Shirou then thought. _"There's no way I'm telling them what he did before they moved away. What kind of person comes out of the closet at the age of Six? I've heard of early blooming, but this is ridiculous."_

"I suppose that's enough for now." Rias stood up from her seat. "Let's go to sleep. Even if we think about it, it's not like Yuuto's behaviour will go back to normal."

After saying that, Rias started to strip her clothes.

Asia becomes flustered and started to blush.

While Shirou raised a brow. "Uh, Rias? Mind telling me why you're taking your clothes off here?"

"Why? You know that I can't sleep without being Naked, Shirou." Rias answered as if it was obvious.

"I don't know why you'd expect me to know that." Shirou muttered irritated. "But that's not what I meant. I mean, why are you taking your clothes off _here_ in my room!?"

Rias didn't stop striping, she answered while her boobs bounced after she took her bra off.

"That's because I'm going to sleep with you." Once again Rias answered as if it was obvious.

"And just when was that decided?" Shirou asked, annoyed.

"Well I can't very well go home in this pouring rain, so I decided I might as well sleep here." Rias reasoned.

"Yeah, expect you forget about the part where I haven't agreed to this." Shirou reminded her.

"Then I'm sleeping here as well!" Asia proclaimed as she begins stripping herself. "I'm also going to sleep with Shirou-san!"

 _"Oh for fuck sake."_ Shirou thought as he face-palmed.

The two now stood completely Naked.

"Fair is fair, Asia." Rias told her. "I claimed him first for tonight."

Asia pouted. "I don't want to… I think I also have the right to sleep with Shirou-san. I don't want to be left out."

"Then let's let Shirou decide." Rias suggested. They both look at the Silver-haired Devil. "What do you say, Shirou?"

Shirou looked at them both with half-lidded eyes. "What do I say? I say. Fuck this shit, I'm going out to do some training." He turned around.

"What?! But you haven't told us whose going to sleep with you." Rias spoke out.

"Get a clue would ya. If it's my choice, then I choose neither, I'm not getting into this stupid argument." With that, Shirou put on a thin jacket. Right now he was wearing a Black buttoned-up Shirt, leather jeans and a thin grey jacket. "I'll be out for a while, so don't bother waiting for me."

Now both Rias and Asia pouted.

"Oh, one more thing." Shirou turned to face them.

"What is it?" Rias asked.

Shirou noticed that neither of them seemed fazed by that fact that they were still Naked. _"How did things get to a point where it's normal for me to see them Naked?"_ He groaned in his mind, before speaking. "It's back to what we were talking about, regarding Excalibur."

"Oh, what is there you wanted to ask about?" Rias now looked confused.

"Hmm." Shirou went over to Dyrnwyn that was placed in its sheath in a corner of the room. "Let me ask you, how do you think I would do against Excalibur right now, with Dyrnwyn, Hypothetically?"

"Right now, you would have a good chance." Rias answered. "But that's only because Excalibur isn't what it used to be."

Shirou looked confused. "What are you saying?"

"The truth is, Excalibur broke a long time ago during the Great War."

"Broke? You've gotta kidding, the so-called Ultimate Holy-Sword broke." Shirou said, annoyed. "Wait, then is the Excalibur you were talking about a different one?"

"Not exactly. Excalibur was broken into pieces during the Great War a long time ago. The fragments were collected and turned into a new form by alchemy. It was made into seven Swords." Rias explained. "Excalibur was once an Unrivalled Holy-Sword that had seven different abilities. Now it is seven different Swords each with one unique ability."

"So the Sword was busted a long time ago and the Church decided to recycle it. Then it's just damaged goods." Shirou said disappointed.

"You shouldn't underestimate it." Rias warned him. "Even if it's not as powerful as it once was, Excalibur is still a powerful Holy-Sword that can end a Devil's life in one slash."

"Well then, how do these fragments compare to other Legendary Holy-Swords, specifically Dyrnwyn?" Shirou questioned.

"Well…" Rias thought for a moment. "They can't really be compared to some of the other Legendary Holy-Swords Caliburn, Durandal or Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, but they're still extremely high levelled. As for Dyrnwyn, I would say their power would be close enough to be comparable to each other. But as I said, the Excalibur fragments have different unique abilities, some are better suited for fighting than others."

"So in the end, the outcome would be decided on the which Excalibur it is." Shirou deduced. "And more importantly, the calibre of the wielders."

Shirou looked deep in thought about this.

"Shirou, this is all Hypothetical isn't it?" Rias asked, both nervous and worried about all these questions.

"Yeah, of course." Shirou answered before walking out.

* * *

Shirou walked downstairs with Dyrnwyn tied to his back, it was concealed by his jacket so only the hilt was sticking out. He headed for the front door as he walked passed the living room.

"Going out?"

A voice spoke out causing Shirou to turn and see Mika sitting on the couch in the living room.

"Mika? It's the middle of the night, why are you down here?" Shirou asked.

"I could ask you the same."

"I was just going out to do some training."

Mika narrowed her eyes. "That was an interesting conversation you had with, Rias."

Shirou's eyes widened both he sighed. "You heard."

"Of course I did, I was curious about this too, you know." Mika said in a matter of fact tone. "I heard about the Holy-Sword project, Kiba's past, everything." She then looked down a bit. "And also… About what you said."

Shirou had the same expression. "I know. I shouldn't get so worked up like that but." He clenched his fists. "I couldn't stop myself."

"I know, only someone who experienced it would know how it feels." Mika agreed.

"Yeah but, of all people I never expect Kiba."

"Is that why you're really going out, to look for Kiba?" Mika asked.

Shirou shook his head. "Not at all, truth is there's something out there."

Mika raised a brow. "Something out there?"

"Ever since my power increased, I've gotten better at feeling out other things, Ddraig told him that sometimes when an aura is too strong you can't sense it unless the owner purposely lowers it to a level where you can feel it." Shirou explained. "And ever since I got Dyrnwyn I felt like I can sense something strong somewhere in town, it was faint before but tonight, I can feel it clearly. So whoever it is, they're close by."

Mika thought for a moment. "But, the power difference between you and I, or even you and Rias shouldn't be THAT big. So why are you the only one who feels it? And why only after you got Dyrnwyn?"

"Because the aura I've been feeling is a Holy-aura." Shirou answered grimly.

Mika had a look of realization. "That makes sense then. Devils can't sense Holy-aura whatsoever. They can only tell when something is of the Holy-element when their Devil-instinct warns them of danger and when it's right in front of them they can feel how potent it is. But you are a special case, it would sense if you can sense Holy-aura considering you have a Holy-Sword."

"That's right." Shirou nodded. "What I was feeling felt kind of like Dyrnwyn which lead me to believe another Holy-Sword was nearby."

"And that's why you were asking Rias those questions about Excalibur." Mika noted. "But why Excalibur specifically?"

"Because I had a feeling I'd be facing Excalibur pretty soon after it was brought up, and after I heard that there are Seven of them I'm even more sure of it." Shirou took a deep breath. "I have a gift for being able to tell when trouble is approaching, kind of like a Sixth-sense."

"So then, are you saying you going out to look for the source of this aura, and then fight them?" Mika asked, sounding worried.

"I have too, or rather I'm the only one who can." Shirou said, dead serious. "Power aside, I'm only Devil here that has experience fighting against enemies that can Holy attacks, and since I have a Holy-Sword that can compete with a recycled Excalibur I can face them on an even playing field, weapon-wise anyway."

"But…" Mika had both a worried and upset expression.

"I know, it's a long shot, but you heard what I heard. All it takes is one slash to kill a Devil. And besides, if I just leave this alone then odds are this'll just grow into a bigger problem. I need to settle this now."

Shirou's words made sense but what he was planning would still put him in more danger than he's ever been.

"Big Bro…Then at least…Promise you'll come back, alright?" Mika said with sadness.

Shirou didn't turn around. "Hmph, of course, who do think I am?" He said confidently.

With that Shirou stood in front of the door with his hand on the knob and was about to open the door and step out, but then Mika calls out to him.

"Wait!"

Shirou stops but doesn't look back. "What?"

Mika has a sad smile on her face and places her hands together to form a heart. "I love you."

Shirou doesn't respond and simply proceeds to open the door.

 _"I know."_ Shirou thought as he walks out,

* * *

Rain feel over the town of Kuoh as the night sky was completely blanketed with clouds. The perfect setting for someone who was depressed. Kiba Yuuto was walking by himself over the streets trying to clear his head, but all he could think of were the thoughts that plagued his mind ever since he was a child. Hoping the rain could cool his head off.

 _"I have never once forgotten my revenge towards the Holy-Sword Excalibur."_ Kiba thought to himself. _"I was just getting senile with the lifestyle at school. I had made comrades, obtained a lifestyle, and received a name. I also received a purpose in life from my master, Rias Gremory. Asking for more happiness is a bad thing. It's certainly bad. Until I achieve my purpose, I have never thought that I can continue to live on behalf of my 'Comrades'."_

SPLASH.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he heard a sound of water that was different from the sound of rain.

There is a priest that appeared in front of Kiba. One who was a male wearing the traditional clothes of a priest and he was hanging a cross around his neck.

Kiba felt his rage increase at the very sight of him. After all they are one of the things he hated. The target of his hatred. Plus in the state of mind he was in now he even felt tempted to just kill this priest right now.

—!

Until he noticed, the priest has a blood patch on his stomach and when he coughs out some blood, he falls down. This surprised the hateful Knight.

"Was he attacked by someone? Who?" Kiba wondered. An enemy?—!"

He suddenly sensed an abnormal presence and created a Demonic-Sword instantly. He knew what he was sensing was a strong killing intent! the murderous intent of whoever was coming felt large enough to almost be visible, it was inhuman even to a Devil.

SPARK!

Right in front of him there was a reflection of a metal under the rain, then there's a spark. When he moved his body towards the place where the killing intent is coming from, there is someone wielding a long sword who comes to attack me.

Kiba came to a complete stop when he faced that person. They were wearing same clothes as the priest that just died front of him. A priest. Except, this one is giving off a powerful killing intent clearly.

"Ninar! Ninar! Yahooo! It's been a while." Said an all to familiar voice who was giving off a disgusting smile. "Did you miss me? Come on, admit it you missed me!"

 _"I know this boy priest who is giving a disgusting smile."_ Kiba thought as he looked at him angrily. _"Shirou-kun described him before. A White-haired crazy priest, Freed Zelzan. He's the one who fought Shirou-kun in the previous incident involving the Fallen-Angels. I was told he fled when it was over."_ Kiba felt that like he was getting more pissed off just by looking at him. _"…Just as I've heard, he is showing a disgusting smile that is ticking me off."_

"…I take it you're Freed Zelzan." Kiba spoke out loud. "Looks like you are still in this town despite being defeated by Shirou-kun. What is your business today? I'm sorry, but I'm in a really bad mood today."

He spoke with an angry tone, but Freed simply laughs it off.

"Haah!? A friend of Shirou-kyun~! Well, that's good timing. I was just thinking about him. About how much I wanted to kill him, this must be fate! Wonderful! In my case, I'm so happy that I'm going to shed some tears because of my fateful encounter with you!"

 _"So he has his cocky way of talking. Seriously, he really does get on my nerves. I already hated him for being a priest."_

When Kiba tried to make a Demonic-Sword in his left hand, the long Sword Freed is wielding started to emit a Holy aura.

Kiba gasped. "That light! That aura! That glow!"

It was an aura he knew, all too well.

"I was getting bored with priest hunting, so this really is a good timing. Very Good. Nice timing indeed." Freed said with his tongue sticking out. "My Excalibur and your Demonic Sword, can you let me check which one is stronger? Hyahahahaha! I will repay you by killing you!"

Freed charged at Kiba and jumped in the air. Raising the Excalibur Sword over his head as he descended towards Kiba. All the blonde Knight could do was raise his own Sword to block it.

 _CLASH!_

"Krrgh…" Kiba growled as he locked blades with Freed. His eyes flashed dangerously and his stance changed, it was much weaker and less refined than usual. He tightened his grasp of his Demonic Sword in that instant. "I will never forgive Excalibur for what it did to me!"

"Time to die~!"

Neither Swordsmen wasted very much time after the beginning of their duel. To an untrained eye, they only looked like two sparks clashing into each over in the rain, almost impossible to perceive. But in truth, both of them were fighting a fierce high-speed battle constantly clashing their weapons against each other. And Kiba didn't seem to be fairing well.

His movements were duller than normal, too riled up to stay focused or pay attention to his surroundings.

Heheheheh! Your pretty fucking face is getting all messed up~" Freed cackled as they locked blades. "Just like it was made to be prey of the mighty Excalibur!"

"Shut your mouth!" Kiba kicked him away. "Holy Eraser!"

On his call Kiba's blade was covered in a pure-Black aura. Strands of darkness extended from Kiba's Sword and wrapped around Freed's Excalibur only for the Holy-blade to glow and cast them away.

"That's not going to work, sorry!" Freed shouted.

"Just had to make sure it was the real thing. Now I won't have to hesitate slicing you and that Sword in half!"

Kiba shot forward towards Freed slashing against his Excalibur over and over again, while Freed put up his defence and kept blocking or parring him amused, obviously toying with him.

"Haaaa!" Kiba roared charging at Freed.

"Too slow." Freed noted, amused as he easily dodged and kicked Kiba away.

With that Kiba lunged at him again and he continued blocking and trading Sword strikes with Kiba. Having enough, Freed exploited an opening and slashed Kiba across the shoulder.

"Augh!" Kiba grunted as blood squirted out of his wound and he fell to his knees.

"And now for the best part! I'm going to hack pff the disgusting Devil head of yours~" Freed lunged at Kiba preparing to decapitate him.

 _"Dammit!"_ Kiba cursed inwardly.

 **Play OST Burning My Soul - Kamen Rider Build**

Rushing through the rain was a overshadowed figure that dashed passed Kiba. Both Swordsmen's eyes widened when the figure appeared between them and with a swing of his fist, punched Freed in the face with a mighty haymaker and knocked him back. Freed was sent flying backwards and smacking into the wet pavement.

Kiba's looked on in shock as the one who just saved him landed right in front of him.

"Gah, Fuck!" Freed cursed as he got back up. "What the hell did I get hit by?"

"What else Freed? Is there anyone else out there with fists as heavier as mine?"

Both of then recognized that voice. The one who had just appeared was Shirou Tsukiharu. Wearing his trademark smirk.

"Shirou-kun?" Kiba spoke surprised.

"…That voice?! Is that you Shirou-kun~!?" Freed said, as crazy as usual. "Now this a really weird reunion~ Have your Dragon powers grown? Is it alright for me to kill you now?"

 _"Freed, of all the psychopaths, it had to be him."_ Shirou groaned inwardly.

"You're just in time, now I can feed two despicable Devils to my Excalibur! And what luck, one of them is the Devil I've wanted to kill for ages~!" Freed cackled.

"So that's an Excalibur." Shirou spoke being more concerned with the Sword than the wielder.

Just looking at it sent chills down Shirou's spine. He thought he would be better at dealing with it after becoming much stronger than when he was during the time he faced Fallen Angels and their Light weapons, not to mention having one himself now. But this was on a completely different level. They never gave him the same ominous feeling as the Sword now clutched in Freed's filthy hands. Even though he himself wasn't afraid of it, it felt as though his very nature as a Devil itself was repulsed by its presence.

"That's right! Hey, you remember me right?! I was there when you killed that Fallen Angel whore Raynare! I tried killing you too, but you didn't die! But it's good because now I can stab and stab you until you bleed and die! Isn't that wonderful~!"

Shirou found Freed to be as repulsive as the Sword.

"Are you kidding, I wish I could forget you!" Shirou shouted back at him. "What are you still doing here anyway? I could've sworn you ran for the hills months ago."

"Ah, but you see, I have a brand new boss~" Freed cheered, waving his Sword around. "And he's much bigger and badder than that ol' slutbag~ He's not afraid to get his hands dirty and let me rip you fucking priests and Devils into pieces~! He even gave me this neat-o super magic Holy Sword to do it~"

 _"Someone gave that to him. Who?"_ Shirou thought before saying out loud. "Well whoever they are, they must be crazy for hiring you."

"Gahahah! Of course, after all crazy is fun~"

Kiba got to his feet, still shaky while holding on to his wound. "Shirou-kun, you came here as if you knew an enemy was here. How?"

"I sensed a Holy-aura somewhere in town. After getting ready I headed out to find the source, and I was sure the chances of it being an enemy were pretty high." Shirou explained before thinking. _"But it's weird, I did sense a Holy-aura, but I felt it coming from the Old Church. I was about to head there when I sensed another one pop up and that it was closer. So if this one is Freed, who was I sensing at the Church? His boss or… someone else?"_

After deciding he could worry about it later, Shirou turned his attention to Kiba. "Step back, I'll handle this."

"Stay out of this! This doesn't involve you!" Kiba yelled. "I have to be the one to destroy Excalibur!"

Shirou just narrowed his eyes at him and gave him a small push which knocked him down.

"You can barely stand up. What can you possibly do besides get in my why?" Shirou asked harshly.

Kiba tried getting back up but couldn't and grit his teeth in frustration.

"Just sit back and watch, I've got a score to settle with this guy." Shirou told him. "Besides, I already get the situation."

Kiba's eyes widened and he looked at Shirou surprised.

"Rias told me, about your past and your grudge against Excalibur." Shirou clarified.

Kiba then looked down. "I see… The Chief told you."

Shirou nodded. "I get that this is something you feel like you gotta do and truthfully I didn't come here to stop you. But you can't do anything if your dead. Right now, just leave this one to me." He told him in a serious tone.

Kiba processed his words and closed his eyes. With that, he stopped trying to get up seemed calmer. "…Very well."

After that was taken care of Shirou turned his attention back to Freed and walked up to him.

"Are you finally done? I was tempted to just hack you to pieces while you were taking your sweet time, but that would spoil the fun~" Freed gripped his Sword.

"What fun?" Shirou asked, somewhat confused.

"The fun of watching you struggle to keep up with me only to fail!" Freed boasted. "And since you don't have your promotion like last time, I have the advantage, but I'll at least be fair and give you time to remove your weights. That way you—"

Before Freed could finish his sentence, Shirou vanished from his sight in a burst of speed and before he knew it Shirou was right behind him with his leg outstretched and about to kick.

"I'll ask you again, what fun?"

 _CRASH!_

Upon those words, Shirou kicked Freed in the side of his head which once again knocked him off his feet and sent him flying to his right. Which made him crash into a nearby vending machine and destroying it upon him pact.

 _"Fast."_ Kiba thought impressed. _"And he hasn't promoted or used his Boosted Gear, he hasn't even removed his weights. Could his speed really have increased so much in only a short amount of time? What kind of training has he been doing?"_

As Kiba was thinking, Freed removed himself from the wreckage and got back up.

"Gugh! I see you're still good and smashing me into solid objects." Freed said, clearly hurt.

"And I see you're still bad at reacting in time." Shirou said, clearly disappointed. "Seriously, I figured you got better considering you beat Kiba. But looks like you're as weak as always."

"No! No! No! That's wrong! I'm actually much different! In particular my SPEED!" Freed lifted up his weapon and it flared up with Holy-aura. "Don't forget I have Excalibur with me."

Freed than vanished in a burst of speed himself and kept disappearing and reappearing.

"Can you keep up~?" Freed's voice echoed. "Some have called this Sword the Heavenly Flash, Excalibur Rapidly! But I don't, I call it the Super-Fast Sword!"

"A Sword that levels up your speed? And you think you can beat with just that?" Shirou said, unconcerned as he unsheathed Dyrnwyn. "You really haven't changed."

 _CLASH!_

Once Freed closed in to strike, Shirou his own Sword and they locked blades. While this was happening, Shirou unleashed Holy-aura from Dyrnwyn to counter to aura from Freed's Excalibur, causing the Stray-Priest to gape in shock.

"W-What the Fucking Hell! How in Gods name are you using a Holy-Sword?!"

Shirou smirked. "You see. It's none of your business!" With that Shirou put more force into his swing and pushed forward.

Now both Swordsmen began yet another high-speed duel. Right now it didn't seem much different the one between Freed and Kiba only this time their roles were reversed and Freed was the one losing. Sparks were crashing into each over in the rain once again, only this time they weren't moving around as much. Shirou kept fighting Freed without moving too much, preferring to stay in close.

Freed seemed much less capable compared to when he was fighting Kiba, now it was as if his movements were duller, he also started to get riled up himself. Shirou then gripped his Sword and unleashed a heavy swing which made their Swords clash again.

 _CLASH!_

The forced behind Shirou's swing ended their struggle and blew Freed away and making him fall on the wet ground.

"Also, that Sword might Boost up your speed but, look at where we are." Shirou pointed out. "In this street which is a long pathway both forward and backwards, but narrow on both side, the only direction you can go in is straight ahead. If you can only move in a straight line anyone can see you no matter how fast you move, even kids no that."

Freed got up and growled. "Well listen to you being so smart." He then grinned. "Buutttt what about this?"

FLASH!

At that moment Freed speeded up again and this time kept disappearing and reappearing but kept alternating the distance between himself and Shirou.

"If I don't attack you directly then you can't counterattack~!" Freed boasted while his voice echoed again. "And also—" Freed swung his Sword at Shirou from a distance while covering it in Holy-aura, and thus it fired off a flying Sword-Slash made of Holy-element at Shirou.

Shirou simply raised his Sword and blocked without much effort.

"—I can stay at a safe distance and kill you with my Holy-Slashes! Good luck trying to reach me~"

Freed continued slashing and sent a volley of Holy-Slashes at Shirou which Shirou continuously blocked with his Dyrnwyn.

 _"You know that's actually pretty clever."_ Shirou thought while blocking and knocked away the flying slashes. _"But…"_

Shirou gathered Demonic Power in his right hand that wasn't holding his Sword and conjured a magic-circle on the ground beneath him.

"Watch your step." Shirou muttered.

At that moment, the spell he made activated. It was an earth spell that broke up the ground in front of him. The flat, even pavement was now cracked, broken up, completely uneven and messed up. The ground was nothing but jagged rocks and rubble as if it was torn up by a jack-hammer. Naturally, it wasn't a stable ground to be running around on in high-speed.

Freed found that out when right after the spell activated. He realized something was wrong when he suddenly lost his footing and soon tripped over about to fall, coming to a complete stop.

Shirou saw this as an opportunity and took advantage of it. Like a speeding bullet, he dashed at Freed and cocked his fist back gather his aura and power into his fist and prepared to punch just as he reached Freed.

 _ **DRAGON FORCE STRIKER!**_

Before Freed even hit the ground, he felt his body being hit was a strong blunt force that felt like having someone smashed an Iron-Hammer right into your spleen. Shirou's new signature-attack dug right into the center of Freed's body and he could almost hear the damage it was doing to his insides. This followed by Freed being blown back and was on a collision course to a wall that was at the end of the street. He crashed into it so heard the concert behind him started to crack.

Things didn't end there. Shirou shot forward planning to end the fight and by his will, Dyrnwyn's powers activated and the blade ignited in strong flames. With that ready Shirou thrust his blade forward and stabbed Freed in his side. This made the Stray-Exorcist cough out blood. He felt so much pain from the stab that he screamed out in pain. Though, ironically because the blade was on fire even though it increased the pain and damage he took, it also singed his bleeding wound closed and stopped the bleeding.

Though Freed wasn't exactly grateful.

"Bastard…" Freed cursed in pain.

 **Music Off**

"There's one way to beat someone whose only strong point is speed; take away their footing." Shirou noted with a smirked. He pulled Dyrnyn out of Freed's body. "Also, you might think Excalibur is all-powerful, but all I see is an old hand-me-down Sword that was made from recycling a broken one. It's noting special."

Freed grit his teeth at his anger and frustrated.

Kiba just looked on in amazement. _"He defeated an Excalibur and it's user and he did it effortlessly. Shirou-kun didn't even need to use his Sacred Gear and he was even wearing weights so this was nowhere near his best. How much stronger has he become?"_

"Gehehaha…" Freed started to chuckle which confused Shirou. "Fine I'll say it, you got me. But it's funny because no matter how strong you think you are, you can't hold a candle to my boss. And one more thing." He quickly takes something round from his pocket and smashes it on the ground. "Don't blink!"

POOF!

An almost blinding flash of light goes off along with a smoke-screen from whatever Freed used. When it passes and Shirou opens his eyes, the former-priest was nowhere to be seen. Blinking to heal his eyes, Shirou looked around to find him but Freed had completely vanished from the scene. Escaped.

"He got away again." Shirou cursed. "Well, guess he's fastest when it comes to running away."

With the fight over Shirou went back to where Kiba was and Kiba is now standing.

Kiba just stared at him stoic and emotionless. "Shirou-kun, why did you come here?"

"What no 'Thank you', no 'Are you all right?', I thought you'd be more grateful considering I just saved you." Shirou pointed out.

"I am grateful. But I need to know how you knew that an Excalibur was here and why you came." Kiba clarified.

"Well you see after I gained Dyrnwyn I've been able to get a better fell for Holy-aura, and after Rias told me that Excalibur fragments were around the same level as Dyrnwyn, I figured it was a pretty safe bet that one was here." Shirou explained. "As for why I came, I was checking to see if it was an enemy, the fact that it was Freed gave me my answer."

"Then, why didn't you try and go after him?"

"There'd be no point. Once the flash cleared I couldn't sense him any more, the only option is to make for him to make another move."

"I see…" Kiba looked down, feeling upset.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just…" Kiba then looked at him with a sad smile. "I was just amazed, you defeated an Excalibur wielder like it was nothing."

"Oh, that?" Shirou shrugged. "It actually wasn't that impressive, speed and power aside my Swordsmanship could still use some work. The only reason it worked out so well because Freed was even worse. I learned this the last time I fought him, no matter what Sword he uses he has no real skill with them. He just wildly swings them around with the grace of a fly-swatter and even with the best Sword in the world, if you just flail around like that anybody could stop you."

Kiba thought about it and realized he was right. As a Swordsman and a Technique-Type, he knows better than anyone the importance of skill, especially when using a powerful Sword like Excalibur. Brute-Force is not real Swordsmanship.

"Although, I couldn't help but notice you were pretty much doing the same thing." Shirou pointed out.

Kiba clenched his and averted his gaze. He felt a bit of shame at how he fought after he lost himself to his anger, it was a complete breakdown of his style. But he couldn't help it.

"Although given the circumstances I can see why. And…" Shirou paused for a moment before he continued. "I can sympathize with your desire for payback."

Kiba then looked up curious. "You can? What do you mean?"

 **Play OST Sadness and Sorrow (Full Version) - Naruto**

Shirou sighed. "Well…I guess since I know yours, you might as well hear mine. You see, Kiba. Like you, I also have something or rather someone that I want to destroy."

Kiba seemed surprised. "What?"

"Guess I should start at the beginning." Shirou looked up at the night sky. "It all started Seven Years Ago. I was from a family of four; Mika, my parents and of course myself. Life was sweet, I almost wished the days would never end. But one-day things took a turn for the worst." He grimaced remembering the next string of events. "I don't know exactly what happened or remember much, expect for my parents yelling at me to run, they just kept saying run, and the next thing I knew everything went dark."

"You fell unconscious?" Kiba asked.

Shirou shook his head. "No, someone knocked me out." He explained. "I actually learned about this a little while ago, when you guard is down and you take a sharp blow to the head, you can completely black out without in an instance. Everything is normal, then all of a sudden Bang! Everything is dark, when you wake up you realize you must have been knocked out."

"And what happened when you woke up?"

Shirou gritted his teeth and gripped his hand over his chest. "That's when took a turn for the worst. When I woke up the first thing I realized was that I couldn't move, my limbs were locked up by chained cuffs and I was hanging the middle of a dark room. And that's… That's when… The torture began."

Kiba's eyed widened, he now looked utterly shocked by what he had just heard. "Torture?"

"Yeah," Shirou seemed as if just talking about it was painful. "It's something I can never forget, I think I even remember every detail of it. It started with small stuff like just a whip or punching me. Then they move on the things with sharp edges like blades or spikes, the guy would always hit with enough force to leave a scar and aim for a different spot each time as if he wanted to crave up every part of my body." He started to shake. "Though he made sure to hold back enough for me to survive, I think death would have been better since he loved taking his time."

Kiba was horrified by what he was hearing, plus he realized he had already seen the evidence not too long ago. "Your scars."

Shirou nodded. "Yeah, I was lucky no one brought it up at the time so I didn't have to talk about it." He then loosened his grip. "I also started wearing bandages to cover them up, just so I wouldn't have to look at them."

* * *

 _(Flashback)_

 _"In a fight, I'm a lot of things, I'm violent, ruthless, brutal, merciless, cruel, unforgiving, cold-hearted, and especially destructive." Shirou listed. "I'm all those things, but the thing I would never do is torture someone, especially go out of my way to attack someone who couldn't even defend themselves anymore." Shirou looked away and gripped his fist. "That's something that always turns my stomach."_

 _They were all surprised, not one of them expected him to be so affected by something like this._

 _Then Kiba asked what they all suspected._

 _"Shirou, were you once tortured?"_

 _Shirou didn't even look at them, he just kept his head down._

 _"Don't ask." Was all he said._

* * *

 _(Flashback End)_

 _"So that's why."_ Kiba thought, understanding Shirou's reaction from back then. "But then, how did you—" Kiba started to say.

"How did I get away?" Shirou finished his sentence. "Actually, believe it or not, that's where my memories start to get hazy." Shirou took a deep breath. "After he was finally done torturing me I was just hanging there, completely drained, scarred and dripping in my own blood. I didn't even have the energy to scream any more, but what woke me up was when he told me that he was planning on torturing my Sister next."

"What?! Mika was there too?!"

"She was, knowing that was the most terrifying thing for me because it made me wonder if she was going through something similar. When those thoughts entered my mind, all I saw was red." Shirou placed a hand on his head. "I don't exactly have all the details but, the next thing I knew someone else entered the room and he unhooked me."

"Someone rescued you? Who?" Kiba became curious.

"That's what I wanted to know." Shirou responded. "I had no idea who it was, and truthfully I can't even remember his face. But I didn't care at the time, all I could think about was find Mika and escaping. Good news was I found her pretty quickly. The bad news was it was only because I could hear her screams of pain. When I found her she was in a room just like mine only she wasn't as injured. But while what happened to her was tame compared to me, it was still serious for a girl her age. I grabbed her and ran, I was still injured but my adrenalin kept me going. Only… When I thought I reached the exit, the worst part happened."

 _"The worst part."_ Kiba thought, slightly afraid. _"After all that, what could the worst part be?"_

"I saw them, both my parents lying on the ground in a pool of there own blood." Shirou said, grimly. "And standing over them was the same man who tortured me. I didn't want to believe it, but I couldn't look away, I just stood there frozen. Even a kid like me could tell they were dead. And that he killed them."

"But why?!" Kiba asked in disbelief. "None of this adds up, why kill your parents and why did he kidnap and torture the two of you?! What could he possible of wanted?"

"You think I haven't been asking that same question for years?" Shirou questioned, which silenced Kiba. "I don't know, maybe he was their enemy or something."

"That doesn't seem like much of a reason."

"You say that but, aren't there also people who would kidnap a bunch of orphans and experiment on, only to kill afterwards just on the premise that they _might_ be able to wield a Sword?" Shirou pointed out.

Kiba realized Shirou made a good point.

"Besides I never really knew a thing about my parents. Where they were from, how they meet, if I had any other family besides them, I didn't know a thing." Shirou admitted. "But I was just a kid at the time and never thought that stuff was important or I guess, I just assumed there would have been time when I was older, I never thought something like this would happen." He said regretfully. "So if there was a reason, I obviously wouldn't know about it."

"That makes sense, it's normal not to worry about most things when you're a child." Kiba looked regretful himself. "In most cases anyway."

"Whatever the reason, the story didn't end there." Shirou continued. "After I saw that, I felt all the strength I had leave my body as if everything keeping up had just disappeared and I just fell. Next thing I knew I woke up in a hospital bed and someone was sitting beside me. I was pretty sure it was the same person who saved me before. He got up, said that words _(It's okay, your safe now.)_ and left, never to be seen again."

"So you never found out who he was?" Kiba asked.

"Fraid not. It's a shame though, I wanted to remember, but." Shirou put a hand over his head again. "Every time I try to remember, there are so many blank spots, I just don't see it."

"It's probably a psychological trauma." Kiba guessed.

"I thought the same thing, but honestly it didn't matter to me all that much. Because." Shirou narrowed his eyes. "Of all the things I do remember, there was one thing I never forgot. Even now it's been permanently burned into my memory."

"And, what was that?"

"The face of the man who was behind all this." Shirou answered with a fire in his eyes. "I can still see it even now, the face of the one who ruined my life, who ravaged my body, who took everything from me. I remember every detail of him, especially his expression. It was cold and callous like he didn't see a thing wrong in what he was doing or didn't even care. And whenever he looked at me, it was as if he thought he was so much better than everyone, like the world wasn't good enough for him." Shirou placed an arm over his torso. "Every time I remember his face etched into my mind, the scars bay and I can't stop myself from breaking something."

Kiba didn't say anything, he didn't know what to say. The fire that Shirou had in his eyes, the pure hatred he was emanating, the rage he directed towards the one he hated and how it appeared just through him thinking about it. It wasn't much different from his own and that's what surprised him. Not once did ever believe that the incredibly strong, seemingly untouchable Shirou could ever be reduced to such a state.

 **Music Off**

"That's why, more than anything in this world, what I want most was to find him and return the favour." Shirou proclaimed. "I want to kill him."

"Are you saying you desire revenge?" Kiba asked.

 **Play OST The More Precious the Burden Heavier and More Difficult It Is To Shoulder It - Gintama**

"It's not a desire, it's my dream." Shirou corrected. "Rather, it's the dream that both me and Mika share. Our final goal, the end of our journey. And that's why I swore, I swore that I would live. No matter what, I would live and never be defeated until that dream has been realized. And even if I don't know who that guy was or even where he could be, I know he's still out there, so even if I'm basically chasing after a phantom, I'll find him, and end him."

Kiba heard his words and clenched his fist. "…Just like me." He whispered.

"So it's pretty clear neither one of us had a good beginning to our life's." Shirou noted. "But at the very least I know where you're coming from, maybe not exactly but close enough."

"Just one question…Does anyone else know about this…?"

"No one. Mika and I are the only people in the world, not even Asia knows."

"Then, why tell me?" Kiba questioned.

"Because… When I look at you, I think I see how I could've turned out." Shirou responded. "After I made it through all that I decided something, I wouldn't let my dream change who I was. I was only able to follow through with that because Mika was with me. If not I might have turned out much worse, kind of like you are now but all the time."

"I was able to change because of the Chief." Kiba argued. "After she found me and rescued me I become a Knight of Rias Gremory, I still—"

"Then let me ask you." Shirou interrupted. "If you had to choose, which is more important to you, serving Rias or destroying Excalibur?"

Kiba immediately stopped and just looked conflicted.

"That's the difference between the two of us. Rias may have saved you and gave you a new life, but it's not like she was directly involved or had any understanding of what you went through." Shirou pointed out. "Tell me, how do you think you would have turned out if someone else from the project survived and escaped with you?"

Kiba's eyes went wide and had an unreadable expression.

Shirou shrugged. "Well, that might be going too far. But you get what I'm saying. Someone who helped you and someone who suffered with you is to completely different things."

"Shirou-kun, if I said I planned on trying to destroy Excalibur, even if it went leaving the Chief, what would you say?"

"I'd say go on ahead." Shirou answered without even thinking about it. "In the end, what you decide to do is your choice, it's not like I would stop you and considering Rias' position it'd probably be better that way."

"I see… And what if…" Kiba paused. "What if I asked for your help?"

Shirou raised a brow. "What do you mean?"

"Shirou-kun, right now what I want most is to get my revenge and destroy both Excalibur and those who wield it. But despite that, I'm not entirely sure I have the strength to do that." Kiba said regretfully. "And even though this isn't your problem, you are the only person I know who has the power to accomplish this. Will you help me, please." He pleaded.

Shirou just looked at him before deciding. "Alright."

Kiba gasped. "You will?"

"It's obvious that I'm the only Devil in town that can stand up to Excalibur, so I planned on fighting anyway." Shirou admitted. "If you want to break the Swords afterwards than go on ahead. Besides, I told you that I wouldn't stop you, but I didn't say I'd let you do this alone. So I'll tell you what I told Rias before; This time I'll help you out."

Kiba looked distraught and bowed his head. "I am grateful."

"Anyway, we should probably head home." Shirou suggested. "We've been out in the run long enough, so if we find out anything on Freed lets meet up again."

Kiba nodded, agreeing to that and the two parted ways for the night.

Thus a new alliance was formed.

 **Music Off**

* * *

After walking back to his residence. Shirou opened his front door and walked back inside his house. He didn't bother announcing his return since he felt it was obvious everyone was asleep by now.

The first thing he did was use some of his magic power to heat up his entire body with a lesser form of Fire magic. After he was dried off from being in the rain he stopped.

"Magic, it's too convenient not to use."

Once that was done he decided to head to his room, on the way he passed by the living room. The Silver-haired Pawn was planning to keep walking until he noticed something. He approached to get a closer look and saw something on the couch. It was the younger Tsukiharu, Mika who seemed to be fast asleep. Mika's sleeping face was completely peaceful.

 _"Was she waiting for me?"_ Shirou thought as he saw her.

"…..Big Bro…" Mika muttered in her sleep.

Shirou sighed and went over too her. He lifted up the resting figure that was his Sister and began to carry her upstairs. _"Sorry to keep you waiting?"_ He thought while gently carrying her in his arms.

As he reached the door to her bedroom and stepped inside, he entered her room which was a complete mess as always but decided not to let it bother him for tonight. Instead, he quietly approached her bed and placed her on it delicately. Shirou then proceeded to drape a sheet over Mika's body to keep her warm.

When that was done Shirou quietly and swiftly exited the room and gently closed the door behind him. Though once he did, he just stood there and was left in the dark with his thoughts.

 _"I will never forget, for as long as I live."_ Shirou thought with narrowed eyes, remembering the words he told Kiba. _"No matter what, I'll fulfil our dream."_

He clenched his fist and took a deep breath until he was able to put those thoughts away and proceeded to his own room.

Shirou entered his room and then, with a solemn gait, Shirou walked over to his own bed and laid down. For a long time, he didn't say anything. He just laid his head down on his pillow and let his mind slip in the sweet embrace of slumber. With only one last thought.

 _"This is gonna be a Bitch of a fight."_

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. To start, like I said I wanted this chapter to be longer but as I was writing it felt like this was a good point to end it. And now we've heard Kiba's backstory from Rias which is something anyone would know if they read the Light-novel or manga, or even watched the Anime. The big reveal, however, was that we got backstory from Shirou.**

 **I always planned out the backstory for a while and how Shirou and Mika got scarred so much before mentally and physically. The reason there is a blank spot in his memory however is because this is more to the story than even Shirou is aware of. Like the person who saved him and the man who killed his parents. They will both be appearing at some point in the story. You'll know who they are soon.**

 **Now for the Freed fight. I made the fight a cake-walk for Shirou for obvious reasons; for one he overpowers Freed in every category, not to mention Freed is a maniac who lives on bloodlust while Shirou is a fighting genius, also Shirou has fought Freed plenty of times, enough to know how Freed fights. With all those reasons Freed never had a chance.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more then be sure to leave a review, if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	20. Hard Battles And Shocking Revelations

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This chapter will be long, I wanted to get this done sooner but this chapter is worth three chapters put into one so it took three times longer to finish. Plus I had some personal problems, my computer is all messed up, and there were some days I couldn't find the time to write, these past two months have been time-consuming, just last month it was my big sister's birthday and the very next week was her wedding day. But I'm glad I finished this chapter for you guys and I felt bad for making you all wait for so long. This chapter will have everything, plot, fighting, information, revelations, and story progression.**

 **Note: I wanted to get this chapter out before the end of June but I suppose having at the beginning of July isn't so bad. I hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, High school DxD, High school DxD New, High school DxD Born, High school DxD EX and High school DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Hard Battles And Shocking Revelations**

* * *

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

CLICK.

Shirou hit the snooze button on his alarm clock. A soft groan escaped his lips as he breathed in before getting up. Next, he sat up and stretched out his arms, letting the tiredness and fatigue from last night fade. As Shirou stretched out his arms over his bedspread, his hand brushed up against the soft pillow on his side…

.

.

.

"…Wait, soft pillow on my side?" Shirou said confused. "I've only got one pillow for my head, what's…"

Shirou paused, suddenly remembering the sensation on his hand and who would be on the side of his bed. Once those thoughts came to him, Shirou got out of bed, removed the blanket and groaned at what he saw.

Laying on the right side of his bed sleeping on her left side was Rias who was still fast asleep and as always Naked as the day she was born. The unusual sight was that sleeping on the left side of his bed sleeping on her right side was Asia who was also fast asleep and just as Naked as Rias was.

 _"Huh, Asia as well. That's new."_ Shirou thought before clapping his hands.

CLAP!

"Alright wake up!" Shirou said loudly.

"Unnn…mmm…" Rias let out a sweet-sounding moan before opening her eyes. Looking at him she smiled and sat up. "Good morning, Shirou." She said before Asia awoke and sat up too.

"You came back." Asia said happily. "Did you sleep okay?"

"I'm good." Shirou said dryly. "Mind explaining why you two are in my bed, and why are you Naked?"

"Well, you didn't come back for a while so we weren't able to determine which on one of us would sleep with you." Rias said. "So we decided we would wait here together until you returned. But you took too long and we ended up falling asleep."

"Even still, I'm glad you're here now." Asia said.

 _"I guess I was so tired I didn't notice them. So that means I slept sandwiched between both of them,"_ Shirou thought, then suddenly he replayed what they just said and raised a brow.

"Wait, does that mean that you to slept in my bed, together, Naked, just so you could have the chance to sleep with me?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Is there something wrong with that?"

The way both Rias and Asia answered that so nonchalantly made Shirou wonder.

 _"What is with these two?"_

All the suspense and tension of last night was completely gone.

Asia then gasped. "Goodness, we should go get breakfast ready. It's already late."

"Oh, right!" Rias quickly got off the bed and took the blanket with her, wrapping it around her body like a toga to cover herself. "Thanks again for having us." She said gratefully.

Asia slipped on her sleeping dress before turning to Shirou with a smile. "I hope we can continue this sometime." She said gratefully.

The two girls then walked away and made their way to the door. Once they exited the room Shirou sat back down on his bed.

"I'd better remember to wash that blanket." Shirou sighed. "It's weird though, Rias' has always been an exhibitionist and sometimes sexually but now she seems really horny, like a school-girl from an H-game and what's weirder is that Asia is following suit. Seriously what's with those two. It's like they're drawn to me or something."

 **[That you can blame on me.]**

The sudden voice made Shirou look down at his arm and realize his Dragonic partner was communicating with him.

 _"Ddraig? Didn't think I'd be hearing your voice right now."_

Shirou communicated with him telepathically again.

 **[I came talk inform you of something, but first I'll answer your curiosity. You are correct in assuming those women are drawn to you. The reason for that is because you possess the aura of a Dragon.]**

 _"You lost me, what's that mean?"_

 **[Up until now, you've somewhat been able to attract the opposite sex because of either your appearance or your personality. But whatever the reason, it was only on a normal scale. However, now that you've awakened to the power of a Dragon, a Dragon-Emperor at that, their attraction to you will increase all the more. And the stronger that aura becomes the more this will increase.]**

 _"What?! You're telling me that Dragon aura is basically pheromones to attract women?"_

 **[It's true. All my hosts were surrounded by the opposite sex. For all my previous wielders they gained the affection of large amounts of women. The more they mastered my Gear the more woman came.]**

Shirou stared at his hand with half-lidded eyes.

 _"That explains a lot. And let me guess, their solution was to have a Harem."_

 **[Indeed. In fact, I can't remember a single one of my male hosts who didn't have one.]**

 _"Of course you can't. So I guess I don't really have a choice, besides chemical castration."_

Shirou scratched his head.

 _"Well, I'm not exactly thrilled about this nor do I plan on looking for a Harem. But I'll at least get used to the idea."_

 **[That would probably be in your best interest.]**

 _"So what was the other thing you wanted to talk about?"_

 **[The next part is of great importance so pay attention. This is a warning.]**

Shirou sensing this seriousness in his voice became interested. _"What is it?"_

 **[I've been sensing a strong source of power nearby lately. It's making me anxious and it won't stop bothering me.]**

 _"Someone strong nearby?"_ Shirou remembered what Freed said. _"Do think it's the new boss Freed was talking about?"_

 **[It's possible. But I can't say for sure where it's coming from. To make things worse I'm sensing more than just one, I'm sure I feel two great powers nearby but I can't hone in on where they are exactly.]**

Shirou did remember he felt another source of Holy-energy besides Freed last night. He was weighing the possibility that what he was sensing could be one of the sources of power Ddraig was talking about.

 **[In any case, you should keep your guard up. You never know when the White One will make an appearance.]**

 _"Yeah about that. Who the hell is the 'White One' somehow I doubt that's an actual name."_

 **[The White Dragon Emperor. Also known as the Vanishing Dragon.]**

 _"White Dragon Emperor?"_ Shirou seemed unsettled by this information. _"You never told me there were other Dragon Emperors."_

 **[True. But at the same time, I never told you that the title of Dragon Emperor was something only you possessed.]**

 _"Well, you got me there."_

 **[Do not worry though. There are and always will be only two. We are called the Two Heavenly Dragons, and we've been fighting for centuries now. Those who are born with a Heavenly Dragon within them are destined to fight each other.]**

 _"Another opponent lined up for me huh?"_

 **[Yes.]**

 _"And, is he strong?"_

 **[I would assume so. Whenever the two of our hosts fought in the past, it would always lead to great battles that would bring destruction to everything around them. And more often than not even if one of them won it would have to be at the cost of their own life.]**

 _"Sounds fun, but I'm kind of in the middle of something. Remember I've gotta help Kiba hunt down Excalibur."_

 **[I know. I heard your conversation last night along with the fact that you've entered into an alliance with the Knight.]**

 _"…Oh right, you hear everything I do."_

 **[That's right. I must say though I was surprised. I never expected the earlier parts of your life to be that way.]**

Now Shirou was confused.

 _"Wait you didn't know? I thought you were inside of me since I was born."_

 **[You misunderstand, while it is true I've been within you from the beginning. I'm only conscious after you reach a certain stage of power. In truth I only awaken a few months ago, I wasn't aware of anything about you before then.]**

 _"I see."_

 **[Anyway I've told you everything I intended to tell you. Be sure to take heed.]**

And with that Ddraig ended their conversation and the glow on his hand faded.

 _"Everything he told me; Strong aura's nearby, White Dragon Emperor, and build a Harem."_ Shirou listed. _"I should write that down" He then shrugged and stood up. "I'll deal with it later."_

"Are you done yet?"

Shirou turned to his right and saw that standing by the door to his room was Mika.

"Mika?"

Mika walked up to him.

"Yeah, I figured you were still up here."

"Really, how'd you know I was in my room?"

"Well, I knew something was up when I woke up in my bed when I know I fell asleep downstairs last night." Mika then grinned. "And I became sure of it when I went downstairs a short while ago and saw Asia and Rias making breakfast, the latter of whom I might add was wearing nothing but the blanket from your bed."

"Seriously?!" Shirou face-palmed. "I guess I was hoping for too much when I assumed she would get dressed first."

"Anyhow, I came up here to see you when I noticed you were looking at your hand with a serious look on your face." Mika continued. "I knew that meant you were talking to the Red Dragon inside your Gear. So I waited until you were done."

Shirou shrugged. "Well, you're right I was."

"So Brocity what were you and the big guy talking about?" Mika asked.

"Oh ah, well." Shirou didn't really want to worry her about what Ddraig told him so he just decided to say something he knew would distract her. "He said, Dragon aura attracts the opposite sex and I'm going to have to build a Harem."

"FOR REAL!" Mika said, exploding with excitement as she jumped from where she was standing and flew towards him, glomping on his torso. "That's amazing, a Harem! I've always wanted to hear you say those words!"

"Would you get off me!" Shirou demanded.

"I can't wait, how many girls will you have? 10, 15." Mika's excitement only grew. "One thing's for sure though, I'll be the main girl."

Shirou did a double-take on those words.

"What?"

"Think about it, it only makes sense. I've known you the longest, I'm the strongest and if I do say so myself the best match for you. And I'd be the best at managing your Harem." Mika reasoned.

Shirou had to resist the strong urge to slam his head on the wall.

"Sometimes I wonder where you come up with this stuff."

"Oh come on." Mika brushed off. "If you're going to have a Harem anyway, who would be a better choice?"

"I don't, maybe someone who isn't my SISTER!" Shirou said as if it was obvious.

"Oh Brother, Dearest Naive Brother." Mika shook her head. "You realize it's way too late to be playing that card. First of all, we're Devils now so that argument means nothing now. And second, I'm closer to you than any of the others, including on an intimate level. We've slept in the same bed, we've shared a bath together and we've kissed on the lips." She reminded him. "I've literally gone further with you than any girl you know. In fact, I'd say I'm already the main girl." She said proudly.

"Do you ever think before talking?!" Shirou snapped. "Your forgetting that everything you just listed was instigated by you, without my consent."

"Ah, but you never actually did anything to stop me, if you recall." Mika shot back. "Meaning your clearly just denying how you really feel."

"This conversation is over," Shirou said feed up as he walked out of his room.

Mika simply smiled feeling victorious. "He still didn't deny it. Looks like I was right."

* * *

Meanwhile, at Kuoh Academy, Sona and Tsubaki were walking towards the school together. Sona was reading a small book while her, Tsubaki walked beside her with a stoic look on her face.

However as they almost reached the school gate and stepped on the bridge, Sona stopped, raised her head up from her book and closed it.

Tsubaki also saw what her master saw and stopped when she did.

"President, look." Tsubaki informed her, even Sona could see perfectly well what was in front of them.

Standing on the other side of the bridge were two young girls wearing white cloaks with hoods on. The same girls that currently occupy the Old Church.

The two of them stared at them, as Sona scanned them. She noticed the large Sword-like object that was wrapped up in cloth and saw a small gold seal with a simple edge into it.

"Holy-Sword." Sona muttered.

* * *

After school let out and the sun was starting to set before the horizon, Shirou, Asia, and Mika were walking through the hallway of the Old School Building. While walking Asia admired how nice the building looked after being cleaned.

"Wow!" Asia said impressed, looking at how shiny everything was now and the fact that she could even see her reflection on a wooden floor. "Look how shiny the floor is!"

"Yeah, it's good enough to make you wonder why Rias didn't do this ages ago." Shirou muttered.

"I'm confused though. When did this place get redone?" Mika asked.

"We went over it at a meeting, you weren't there." Shirou simply replied.

"Are you gonna tell Asia that the reflection on the floor lets you see up her skirt?" Mika whispered.

Shirou looked bored. "I already saw her completely Naked the moment I woke up today. At this point, I don't give a fuck."

Shirou continued his walk through the building with the Rook and Bishop duo following behind him. Walking up the stairs to the floor that housed their intended destination, they turned down the hallway that would lead them to it. However, Asia stopped and looked over her shoulder which let her see something down the other corridor.

"What's that?"

Shirou and Mika stopped walking and Mika went back. "What's what?"

"That over there?" Asia pointed her finger at the corridor and at the end of it was what she was referring to. A doorway that was locked by chains and police tape with the warning 'Do Not Enter!'.

"Oh that. That's the forbidden door." Shirou answered, unfazed. "It's always been there."

"What's inside?" Asia asked.

"Don't know. Lost interest after a while." Shirou replied.

The three of them turned around and walked towards the clubroom. Entering, they found Rias and Koneko each sitting on the couch. Asia greeted them with a smile.

"They did a good job cleaning the place, didn't they?" Rias asked them, smiling. "Feels like we're getting a fresh start."

Shirou nodded nonchalantly, however, the Delinquent looked around noticing the clubroom was more empty than usual. "Where's Kiba and Akeno?"

"…The Vice-Chief is out on an errand and it looks like Kiba-Sempai decided to just not show up today." Koneko told them while taking a sip of her tea. "…Must be nice."

"I hope he's okay." Asia said.

 _"He must be looking for Freed."_ Shirou thought. _"Well, at least I know he won't start a fight without me there."_

Mika noticed her Brother's change in expression and raised a brow.

 _"What's he thinking?"_ She thought suspiciously.

Rias stood up from her seat. "Moving on, Shirou you have a new summons request tonight."

Shirou snatched the flyer with the from Rias annoyed. "Fine, but so help me Rias if this new guy is another freak I swear I'm not doing this anymore."

"I'm telling you this honestly, I have no idea why that keeps happening." Rias assured him.

The look on Shirou's face obviously said he didn't believe her.

A second later the door opened, following Akeno along with, surprising Sona and Tsubaki entering the room.

"Fantastic! Looks like everyone's here." Akeno exclaimed.

"Akeno, why are you late?" Rias asked.

"Well, I brought some guests and was helping them get here," Akeno explained, gesturing for Sona and Tsubaki to step forward.

"Thank you for having us." The Student Council President said.

Shirou looked at them. "Sona? Look whatever it is, I didn't do it, all right? It's a setup."

"Please be at ease, Shirou. I'm not here to accuse you of anything." Sona assured him before looking at Rias. "Rias, I have an urgent matter I must discuss with you at my house, and trust me when I say this; you don't want to talk about what I have to tell you in front of others."

The way she said it had a sense of great importance. Something that brought a serious expression to Rias. "You make it sound like it's a complicated situation."

"It is. Very complicated."

* * *

Later on that night, Shirou was off to perform his mandatory contract summons. This one was from a person who was living in the next neighborhood, so rather than teleporting which Shirou still found uncomfortable, he decided to fly there. He could only hope this one was even close to normal, after what he dealt with on a daily basis he was starting to wonder why he even bothered.

However, he also hoped this wouldn't be something too strenuous. After all, he still planned on searching for Freed or the other Holy-Sword users that were somewhere in town. Kiba hadn't done anything yet but Shirou was under no delusion that would last for too long. He needed to make sure Kiba didn't go off on his own. half of that was because he still considered Kiba to be a weakling compared to himself and the other half was because he knew Kiba can't win while fighting like a berserker.

Last night was proof of that.

After seeing he was at the location of the client, a large apartment building, Shirou descended and walked his way to the entrance. "Let's get this over with." He made his way inside.

Going into the build and riding the elevator to the higher floors, Shirou could tell that living hear must be expensive. After exiting the elevator at that top floor he walked up to the room with the assigned number on the door ad knocked.

 _"Here's hoping the guy I'm about the meet doesn't ask for something stupid or any of the other shit."_ Shirou thought while waiting for the door to open.

He was brought out of his thoughts when the door started to open up. It stopped halfway and appearing from the opening was a tall man appearing to be in his twenties with an average build, violet eyes, black hair, golden bangs, and a black goatee. The man wearing a traditional brown kimono and had a peaceful expression on his face.

Once Shirou lead eyes on him he felt a strange chill. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but something was weird about this man, though he didn't feel sinister he definitely wasn't a normal person. And yet something else felt wrong, it was something he knew was both impossible and ridiculous but, Shirou felt a somewhat familiar presence from this man. It was almost like he had met him or at least someone like him before.

But that wasn't possible.

 _"…Well, he's not hideous."_ Shirou thought.

"Welcome," The man greeted. "I'm guessing you're the Devil I called for."

Shirou nodded. "Yeah, and about the whole coming from the from door thing. Well, it was a short journey so I flew."

"Well, you might as well come in."

Walking into the darkroom, Shirou looked around at all nice furniture that decorated the place. Sitting down on one of the three sofas, Shirou was still curious about who this man was but decided to wait on it for now. Something noticed from this was that he wasn't Japanese, even though he spoke Japanese and wore traditional Japanese clothing. Maybe he was just a fan of the culture. He then saw the man sit down on a sofa himself and brought a bottle of scotch.

The bottle of dark gold liquor was set down on the table in front of them along with two glasses and a bucket of ice.

"Care for a drink?"

Shirou blinked. "Is that scotch?"

"Yeah, I was hoping to have a drinking partner for tonight." The man started to pour some for himself.

"And that's why you summoned me?" Shirou asked still confused.

"Is that a problem?"

"No, it's just…normal." Shirou said after pausing.

The fact that he waited so long to say such a simple word showed just how unexpected this was to him.

"Normal?"

The man didn't seem to get it.

"It's just, ever since I started this crap job everyone who summons we usually turn out to be weirdos or freaks, coming in all shapes and sizes." Shirou explained. "So I guess this is just a surprising change of pace."

"I see."

"But, it's not an unwelcome one." Shirou then started to pour scotch into his own cup. "And as the saying goes 'A man should never drink alone'."

The man had a smile on his face. "Heh, that's a good saying."

CLICK

The two of them clicked their glass cups together before enjoying their drinks.

After a few minutes passed and the two of them kept enjoying both the alcohol and conversation. Shirou forgot about the chill he felt when he saw this man and instead took pleasure in the fact that he was finally doing a pact that he could enjoy. At some point, Shirou reached into his pocket, took out a cigarette and his lighter.

"Oh, you're going to smoke?" The man asked.

"Of course." Shirou answered after lighter his cigarette. "When's a better time to smoke than when drinking booze. After all, it goes perfectly with anything, be it bar snacks, a piece of meat, a meal or even after sex." He breathed out some smoke. "Things are always well when you mix all things in life, good or bad with your drinks."

"Can't say I disagree." The said relaxed.

The man brought out a cigarette from himself and also helped himself to some nicotine.

"Now then, I guess it's time to pay. You want my Soul right?"

"Afraid not."

The way they talked about that so nonchalantly would make someone witnessing wonder if they were serious or not.

"The boss said the whole taking Souls thing was the old form of payment. We don't do that anymore." Shirou explained.

"I see, well I don't have much else for the moment."

"And yet you can afford to live in a place like this." Shirou reminded him.

The man shrugged. "Well, what do you think will suffice?"

Shirou thought for a moment and noticed the bottle of scotch was only half-empty.

"How about this, since I'm in a good mood I'll settle for a light payment." Shirou pointed to the bottle. "How about you give me the rest of that alcohol and we call it a night."

"Heh, that's awfully generous of you." He handed Shirou the bottle. "It's yours."

Once Shirou had the bottle he stood up and got ready to take his leave. "Well, this wasn't boring and that's saying a lot coming from me. See ya later."

After saying his piece the Silver-haired Devil walked out the door and left the man to his own devices. He got comfortable in his seat and smiled up at the ceiling.

"Maybe sooner than you think."

* * *

Within the home of Sona Sitri, Rias and Akeno wore towels to cover their bodies as they walked down a narrow pathway to a large, circular sauna. Once there the two Devils of the Occult Research Club observed the steamy environment that they were in. Most of the interior was made with marble and concrete, with large colorful crystals circling around the area.

"Haven't been here in a long time." Rias said, before stripping off her towel and revealing her buxom figure, causing her large breasts to bounce a little.

"Really? Did you used to come here a lot?" Akeno asked, letting her towel drop to her feet.

"In the past." Sona said behind them, making the two young women turn towards her. "Rias and I came here together all the time so we could tell each other secrets." The bespectacled young woman took off her towel, revealing her slim yet desirable body. She then handed it to Tsubaki who was behind her and already Naked.

Afterwards, they all sat down on the U-shaped bench that went around the room.

"This sauna was installed for my personal use." Sona told Akeno. Sweat beginning to form on their figure. Dipping and running down their bodies.

"This space is directly connected to Miss President's stronghold." Tsubaki informed her fellow Queen. "Which means if its closed no one else would be able to get in."

"Well, that explains how you would be able to tell your secrets here." Akeno said. Sweat dripping down from the tips of her nipples.

"All I ever did was complain about getting into trouble with my mom. Silly stuff like that." Rias said humorously with her eyes closed. "And I think Sona only ever complained about her Big Sister."

"Ara Ara." Akeno giggled. "I didn't realize the two of you were so close."

Sona closed her eyes but blushed in embarrassment. "That's all in the past now." Sona responded.

"True." Rias opened her eyes and turned to her friend. "So what are we here to discuss? Something tells me this secret's a good one."

Sona didn't respond for a moment, making sure she knew how to say this. A second later she opened her eyes and said. "This morning two people from the Church contacted me."

This aroused surprise and suspicion from Rias and Akeno, with the latter asked. "Contacted you how?"

"It's been a while since they came to this town." Rias noted. "Did they tell you what they wanted?"

"They did." She told her. "Rias, they said they wanted to speak with you about something urgent."

Rias gasped. "Members of the Church wanted to speak with a Devil?"

Sona didn't respond and took off her fogging glasses.

"What did they want? There's no other reason for them to be here expect to stir up trouble." Rias sighed before saying. "All right then, what did they say?"

"I accepted their request." Sona told her, cleaning her glasses with light blue magic on the tip of her fingers. "I told them where they could find you, so after school tomorrow they'll be paying you a visit."

"What?"

"There's one other thing you should know." Sona slipped her glasses back on.

Tsubaki then took over the explaining. "Not only were these two members of the Church, but they were also carrying Holy-Swords."

This troubled the two Gremory members. "Wow, really?" Akeno asked.

"Well, that certainly is something to consider." Rias said before placing a hand on her chin. "Why would they come to this town? Maybe members of the Church are from this town?" Suddenly the conversation Rias had with Shirou last night flashed back into her mind, making her gasp. "No way…"

* * *

"You know you didn't have to wait for me right?"

Shirou told Asia and Mika as the three of them were walking down the side-walk during nightfall. After finishing his Devil work for the day Shirou went back to the clubroom to get his stuff before going home. When he got there he saw that both the girls in question were still there and waiting for him instead of leaving.

"I know but, I felt like I didn't want to return home yet until you got back, Shirou-san." Asia said nervously.

"And I really didn't want to be home alone, while you two were out." Mika said honestly.

"You guys are way too clingy." Shirou complained.

Just as they could see house only a few feet away. They all stopped and felt a chill that was all too familiar.

Asia and Mika felt on edge, their danger senses warning them of trouble right in front of them and it would only increase as they got closer. They started to tremble, worried, afraid, they probably would have already run away if Shirou wasn't with them.

Shirou, on the other hand, felt his guard unconsciously raise. He knew exactly what he was dealing with and his body went into battle mode. What was feeling was the same as the pressure he felt when he entered the house that Freed was inside of when they first meet. Or when he first entered the Old Church. But right now it was much different yet much greater, it wasn't the building itself that was giving off this pressure, but rather it was whatever was inside. And whatever it was, it was giving him the same chill he felt from Excalibur.

Shirou mentally prepared himself for a fight. As the three of them stood at the front door.

"Asia, stay behind me, Mika, cover me but keep your distance." Shirou quietly instructed them.

They both nodded, trying to stay calm.

* * *

Rias quickly stood up and looked at Sona. "I'm very sorry, Sona." She said. "Before there's somewhere I have to go as soon as possible. It's very possible Shirou could be in danger, along with Asia and Mika!"

She and Akeno then left the Sauna.

* * *

The Trio of Devils walked inside the house. The house was mostly dark with all the lights off. However, they could see the lights of the living room were on out of the corner of the wall. They could also vaguely hear what sounds like voices, roughly two of them in the living room.

"Let's go." Shirou told them.

With Shirou leading them, they walked up to the living room. Once they were at their destination Shirou was about the walk around the corner. Wondering what to expect.

What he got, however…

"SHIROU!"

At the sound of a loud, bubbly and excited voice, which followed by having the owner of said voice glomping onto him and wrapping him up in a tight hug, Shirou stopped dumbfound completely. This wasn't at all what he was expecting.

Not just that but the person in question was the same chestnut-haired colored girl from who came to the Old Church the other night, her blue-haired partner was also present and sitting on the couch, simply staring at them without saying a word and just holding her Sword-like object wrapped up in cloth.

Asia and Mika were greatly confused. Almost unsure as to why they were even afraid before.

"You're really here! I'm so happy to see you again!" The girl continued, tightening her hug.

"Uh, see me again?" Shirou replied, completely lost.

"Huh? You don't remember?" She pointed to herself with a smile. "It's me."

"Oh yeah, that clears up everything. How could I forget a person whose name is _me_." Shirou said sarcastically.

"Oh stop it," The girl said humorously waving her hand. "Wait, I know." She dug into her cloak and pulled out a picture which she handed to him. "Take a look at this."

Shirou examined the photo and noticed the child in the picture was himself. He hadn't seen a picture of himself as a kid ever since he WAS a kid. It was a rare sight to him, Shirou almost didn't recognize himself, like he forgot what his younger self looked like.

"Well, what'd ya know. It's a tiny me." Shirou marveled at the photo. "Man, I really can't take a bad picture."

"Take another look. Notice who else is in the picture with you." The girl instructed.

Shirou obliged and looked again, this time he zoned in at the child next to him. Then after looking at the girl in front of him and the child in the photo back and forth, he put two and two together and realized he did know this person.

"Woah wait, hold the presses!" Shirou said, surprised. "You're telling me you were the little boy from back then? And you weren't actually a boy."

She nodded smiling. "That's right, I'm actually a maiden and my name is Irina Shidou."

"Huh?" Shirou muttered before he thought. _"Then that also means that before that family moved away I was actually kissed by a girl. And to think all these years I've been remembering that day as the day a Six-year-old boy came out of the closet."_

"Bet you couldn't tell the difference, huh? Well, it couldn't be helped I did act like a troublemaker just like the boys." Irina admitted.

"Yeah, and the fact that you didn't have these back then." Mika added, walking beside Shirou and gesturing to Irina's breasts.

"Mika-chan, it's you." Irina greeted her with a smile as well. "You've gotten older but you're still small."

"Forgive me if I don't return the welcoming attitude." Mika said sarcastically.

"Aww, you don't remember me either?" Irina pouted. "Even though we used to spend so much time together."

"How long ago was that?" Mika asked.

"Ten years ago."

"I'm 14 years old. From what you're saying, I'd of been four at the time."

"Huh, that is a small number." Irina realized. "I guess it does make more sense that you don't remember me."

"Well, at the very least we do remember the fact that we used to live nearby a religious family who was close to our parents." Shirou admitted.

"I'm glad you didn't forget that at least." Irina then looked upset. "Speaking of which, I heard your parents passed away."

The Tsukiharu siblings eyes' widened when she said that.

"I learned about it a few years ago." Irina said sympathetically. "Are you two doing okay?"

"As a matter of fact," Shirou said, his eyes narrowed, "We prefer not to talk about it in this house."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Irina said apologetically.

"Too late, you already said it." Mika added.

"Either way, why did you come to our house in the first place?" Shirou questioned.

"I had some business that required me to return to Japan." Irina answered. "And I was fortunate enough to be sent here, to the town I lived in as a child, So I decided I had to see you again and show you how much I changed." But then, she suddenly changed her tone. "Really. You can't tell what can happen in a reunion."

They all noticed. Her words sounded like the meant something, no doubt it made them put their guards back up.

"Irina." The blue-haired girl spoke as she stood up and grabbed her weapon. "We should be going."

"Oh, right." Irina and the girl started making their way around the living room. However, they stopped when Irina made her way to Shirou, who was watching them carefully. "Don't worry, we're already heading home for today. I meant what I said about wanting to see you again since it's been so long. But it's time for us to say farewell, right Xenovia?"

"Yes." The now named Xenovia responded.

"I see." Shirou said, still not relaxing his guard.

"We'll be seeing you again, Shirou-kun." Irina said confusing him. "Until then take care."

However, Xenovia in a dark tone said. "I'm ready any time…" Holding her weapon up to her chest with both hands.

Shirou scowled back at her. "Then bring it on."

Despite that exchange, she just left. Soon they were on their way out and closed the door behind them.

* * *

A little while later Rias showed up and was filled with relief.

"I'm so glad you're all safe." Rias exclaimed hugging Asia and Mika while they were all inside Shirou's room. "Are you hurt? Did they attack you? I think they knew about us being devils, but I think they couldn't lay a hand on us in a normal neighborhood."

"Both Mika-san and I are safe, Chief-san." Asia said, trying to calm her down.

"Which is obvious, we had Brosfer with us." Mika added.

Shirou was simply standing near his bed.

Rias went up to Shirou and hugged him even tighter than the other two, she held him like he was something valuable.

"Aaah, Shirou. I'm glad…" Rias exclaimed with tears in her eyes. "If something were to happen to you, Mika and Asia, I… After I was called in by Sona and was listening to the story about people related to the Church intruding the town. And I also heard that they have a Holy-Sword with them.

 _"So that was a Holy-Sword she was carrying."_ Shirou thought back to Xenovia. _"Now the question's whether or not that was an Excalibur."_

"I thought that the worst might have happened to my cute servants. I prepared for the worst scenario, but you know…? If I were to bid farewell to you, after all, we've been through, then I would have regretted it till death." Rias said, clinging to him even more. "I'm sorry. I should have treated you three with more importance."

"You know, you're almost as clingy as them." Shirou muttered annoyed, referring to Mika and Asia.

Rias released her hug, without changing her expression. "Oh Shirou, you never stop making me worry."

"In any case." Shirou attempted to change the subject. "What did you and Sona talk about?"

The Crimson-haired girl sighed before sitting down on the bed. "According to Sona, who had met those two at noon, they want to negotiate with me, the Devil Rias Gremory, who has this town as her territory."

"And why would they want to do that?"

"I'm not sure what they are planning, but they are planning to come to the club room after school tomorrow. They apparently promised God that they won't attack us."

Shirou scoffed at Rias' words considering he didn't believe in God.

"That promise holds no weight."

"No that's not true." Rias assured him. "We have to believe in their belief since they are the believers of God and they are coming to request something from Devils when we are supposed to be evil beings to them. They seem to be under pressure and it's certain that it's trouble. I have a bad feeling about this… From their story, the Priests that come to this town keep getting killed."

"Did they tell you why Priest have been coming to this town in the first place?" Mika questioned.

Rias shook her head. "They said they wouldn't until tomorrow."

 _"It's probably Freed who's been killing them. But does this mean Freed or in this case his Boss is the reason they've been sending Priests?"_ Shirou thought to himself. _"If so, then that probably means that his Boss is someone big enough for the whole Church to consider a threat. That makes things harder."_

"Shirou." Rias' voice took him out of his thoughts. "One of them was your old friend from childhood, right? What do you think of them?"

Shirou thought about them. "I can say Irina isn't too much of a problem. She knew we were Devils, but it seems like she really did just came to say hi."

"That's a relief."

"But the other one." Shirou continued. "Xenovia, she was different, even though she didn't say much, I could tell from the look in her eyes." He said seriously. "Those were the eyes of the wild. Someone who has no problem what so ever in tearing someone to pieces or in this case, just waiting for an excess to do so."

From the way he said it, the others looked worried.

 _"First time ever I've seen someone with those eyes."_ Shirou thought. _"Eyes just like mine."_

"In that case, we had best be on guard tomorrow." Rias concluded.

* * *

The next day after school.

The members of the Gremory group were gathered in the club room. The room was split down the middle. On one sofa, Rias and Shirou. Even though Rias said that as a servant he was required to stand. Shirou told her he was willing to do it when Raiser was here for appearance's sake, but he won't do the same for members of the Church. Rias decided to relent since she knew she couldn't convince him in this matter. On the other sofa sat the two _guests_ were sitting. The other members of the group including Kiba were standing behind the sofa and were listening to the conversation. Ever since those two came to the club room, everyone couldn't help but feel something. Their instincts as Devils were telling us that they were dangerous, or rather they had something dangerous on them. Rias looked at them with a serious face. But the most dangerous one was Kiba. He was glaring at them grudgingly. If something were to happen… No. He looked as if he was about to go slashing at them at any moment. They were the believers of God that Kiba hates. If you knew his past, then you would know that he was brimming with hatred now. Under this atmosphere, the first one to speak was, Irina Shidou.

"Recently the Holy-Swords Excaliburs that were kept by the Catholic Church Headquarters Vatican, Protestant Church, and Eastern Orthodox Church were stolen."

Xenovia got her weapon, which was covered in cloth, and revealed it to them. What appeared was a long sword.

"This is Excalibur."

The moment the Sword was revealed, everyone felt as if every pore on their bodies opened and felt something really cold running through them. Fear. Shiver. Awe. Those thoughts and emotions entered all their minds. The Sword was dangerous. It became easy to understand that a Devil would die instantly just from its touch. Is this a Holy-Sword. Is this the ultimate weapon to kill Devils.

"As I'm sure most of you are aware. Excalibur was broken into pieces during the war a long time ago. The fragments were collected and turned into new forms by alchemy. It was made into 7 Swords. This is one of them. The Excalibur I hold is "Excalibur Destruction". It's one of the 7 Holy-Swords that were created. The Catholic Church is in control of it."

Once she said the bare-minimum about her Sword Xenovia put her it away and wrapped it with a cloth. Upon closer inspection, there were spell symbols that could be seen on the cloth. Meaning the Sword had to be sealed outside of use.

Irina also took out something that looked like a long rope. That rope started to move as if it were alive. The rope changed its shape right in front and turned into a katana.

"Mine is "Excalibur Mimic". I can change its shape into anything I want so it's really useful for carrying around. Just like this, each Excalibur has its unique ability. This one is in the possession of the Protestant Church." She said it with Pride.

"Irina… There's no reason to tell these devils the ability of Excalibur, is there?" Xenovia reprimanded her.

"Ara Xenovia. Even if they are Devils we still have to form a trustworthy relationship with them in this situation." Irina brushed off. "Also, even if my Sword's ability is revealed, I won't fall behind all the Devils here."

Shirou could tell, she was just brushing off the situation. She was looking down on them, thinking regardless of who they are she could easily defeat them. While he wasn't a stranger to arrogant opponents, the fact that she believed she was completely beyond them just because she had Excalibur was something that angered him a bit. Though in a second Shirou could sense a far stronger source of anger right behind him.

It was Kiba. He was glaring at the Excaliburs and the two women with a face that just screamed he was triggered. Although considering Kiba's history with Excalibur this was expected. But after already facing an Excalibur last night Kiba probably never thought that he would encounter more Excaliburs here. And now it was right here in front of him. He must be close to losing.

 _"I guess I should have seen this coming."_ Shirou thought. _"Still, if he can keep his cool a little bit longer, then I can get more information."_

"So what does the stolen Excaliburs have to do with this country located in the east of the World?" Rias continued to talk with the same attitude.

"The Catholic Church was in possession of two Excaliburs including mine. The Protestant Church also had two. Also in the Eastern Orthodox Church, there were two as well. The last one went missing in the previous war between God, Devils, and Fallen-Angels." Xenovia continued. "One Excalibur was stolen from each Church. The ones that stole them escaped to Japan, and brought them to this town."

Rias put her hand on her forehead and took a breath. "Looks like my territory is full of incidents. So who are the ones that stole the Excaliburs?"

"The ones that stole them were the Grigori." Xenovia answered.

Rias' widened her eyes in surprise at the answer.

"The Holy-Swords were taken by the Fallen-Angel organization? It's not a matter of mistake. But certainly, it would be the Fallen-Angels when it comes to stealing them. For the Devils working at the top, Holy-Swords does not give them much interest."

"We know the main culprit who stole the Excaliburs. One of the leaders of Grigori, Kokabiel."

"Kokabiel…" Rias repeated grimly. "One of the leaders of the Fallen-Angels that survived the previous wars since ancient times… I never expected to hear the name of the one that appears in the Bible."

Shirou zoned in on this new information.

 _"I got more information than I thought. This Kokabiel who they keep talking about is probably one of the great powers that Ddraig was warning me about, a Fallen-Angel leader is apparently as strong as the Ultimate-Class Devils, so it's no surprise Ddraig called him out."_ Shirou thought to himself. _"More importantly, if he is the one who stole the Excalibur fragments then that must mean he's the new Boss that Freed was talking about and he gave one of the stolen fragments to Freed. That means he still has two more."_

Shirou considered that for a moment. _"Ideally, he only has Freed with him and just gave him one fragment while keeping the others in reserve. But the worst-case scenario is that he has two more people on his side that can also wield the fragments and that means I have to face three Excalibur wields and a Cadre-Class Fallen-Angel."_ He almost shuddered at that thought. _"Well, odds are that isn't the case, after all, Excalibur isn't easy to wield and I doubt he's got that many of them who can. Still though, I can handle Freed but this Kokabiel is probably no joke. I'll need to keep my guard up for when I fight him."_

"We sent Priests, Exorcists, to this town secretly but they kept getting killed." Xenovia said. "Our request… No. Our order is to not to have any Devils intrude in the battle between us and the Fallen-Angels for the Excaliburs. In other words, we came here to tell you not to interfere with this incident."

Rias' eyes changed into a glare after hearing the way Xenovia talked. Though Shirou just seemed amused.

"Such a manner of speech." Rias retorted. "Is it restraint? Are you thinking that we might collaborate with those Fallen-Angels? Perhaps that we might team up with them to do something with Excalibur?"

"The headquarters think that it might not be impossible."

There were chills within Rias' eyes. Her eyes went from deep blue to a pulsating Crimson. She was pissed. An enemy comes all the way to her territory. Then tells her not to be involved and not to butt in. Also, they said whatever they wanted to by saying that they would not forgive them if we formed an alliance with the Fallen-Angels. Rias is a prideful High-Class Devil, hearing someone talk to her in such a condescending tone is something she wouldn't allow herself to keep quiet about.

"The higher-ups don't trust Devils and Fallen-Angels. We were ordered as _(If the Holy-Swords are taken away from God's side then the Devils would also be happy right? The Fallen-Angels would also profit from it. For those reasons, it won't be weird for them to form an alliance.)_. That's why we are giving you a warning. If you form an alliance with the Fallen-Angel Kokabiel then we will eliminate you all. Even if you're the little sister of the Devil King, by our boss." Xenovia said it casually without caring about Rias' glare.

"Gahahahaha!" Before Rias could reply, Shirou let loose the laughter he was trying to hold in. This caused the others to turn to him confused.

Xenovia narrowed her eyes. "Is there a reason for your laughter?"

"Heh, my bad. But honestly, how can you expect me not to laugh." Shirou's expression then changed from amused to his usual smirk. "Especially after you said that stupid, and all with a straight face."

This time it was Xenovia's turn to glare.

"And just what is that suppose to mean?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Shirou asked in the same tone. "First of all, the fact that those higher-ups you were talking about are obviously as stupid as they are paranoid. Devils and Fallen-Angels hate each other more than the Church. Anyone alliance we would make would always end in someone being stabbed in the back, that fact is so clear that the alliance will never happen." He explained. "The second funny part is you; You seem to think that just cause you have an Excalibur you're stronger than me, though I seriously doubt that. Plus, the fact that you think you can just walk in here like you own the place, make demands and just expect everyone to obey you is a joke at best." He narrows his eyes at her while still smirking. "You'll eliminate us? Try it and _you'll_ be eliminated."

Xenovia grit her teeth and sent him a death glare. Before turning to Rias.

"Are you just going to allow your servant to speak to us like that?"

Rias wore the same expression as her Pawn. "I'll tell him when he says something I disagree with."

Xenovia almost couldn't stop herself and reached for her Excalibur, she placed a hand on it but before anything else could be done, Irina placed her hand over Xenovia's in a motion to stop her. Xenovia turned to her partner and Irina simply looked at her serious and shook her head, is if she was telling her to calm herself. After-which Xenovia did so and learned her hand.

 _"She really was about to start a fight just now."_ Shirou thought. _"I was right, this girl is wild."_

Xenovia took a deep breath and sighed. "There really is no reasoning with Devils is there." She muttered. "I had to warn you just in case that Kokabiel is hiding in this town along with the three Excaliburs. If something were to happen I would be the one to be hated by the bunch in the Church headquarters. Well, we won't ask for cooperation. If you were to form an alliance with God's side temporally, then it would affect the balance of the Three Factions. Especially if it's the little sister of a Satan."

After hearing Xenovia, Rias softened her expression and took a breath herself.

"Where is the person the Orthodox Church dispatched?" Rias questioned.

"They have that person put on hold for this case." Xenovia answered. "They are planning to protect the last Excalibur if Irina and I fail."

"So it's just the two of you? You are going to retrieve the Excaliburs from the leader of the Fallen-Angel with just the two of you? How reckless. Are you trying to die?" Rias said it with an amazed voice.

"Yes."

"I have the same view as Irina, but if it's possible I don't want to die."

Irina and Xenovia said it with straight eyes.

"…You came here to Japan prepared to die? The belief in your teaching is extreme like always."

"Don't talk ill of our beliefs, Rias Gremory. Right, Xenovia?"

"Right. Also, the Church decided that it would be better to eliminate all of the Excaliburs rather than letting them get used by the Fallen-Angels. Our minimum objective is to get the Excaliburs away from the Fallen-Angels. To accomplish that, it's okay for us to die. The only way to fight against the Excaliburs' are Excaliburs'."

 _"It's the same stupid religious crap as always."_ Shirou thought irritated. _"It's okay for us to die, huh? Anybody can say that but if you really were okay with dying just something like "taught beliefs" then, whatever happens, is your own fault. That's the same as being taught that it's okay to kill yourself as long as it benefits the Church, what could be more stupid?"_

"Is it possible with only the two of you?"

"Well, we won't die in vain." Xenovia said fearlessly to Rias' question.

"You seem confident. Do you have a secret weapon?" Rias asked.

"Maybe. I will leave it to your imagination."

"In other words, no." Mika commented.

"Probably." Shirou agreed.

After that, the two of them just stared at each other and the conversation stopped. Shidou Irina and Xenovia looked at each other and stood up.

"Then we will take our leave now. Let's go, Irina."

"So you won't drink your tea? I can prepare a snack for you."

"I don't need it." Xenovia declined Rias' offer with her hand.

"I'm sorry. See you." Irina also apologized with her hand.

They didn't try to accept Rias' offer, and the two of them tried to leave. Then both of them looked in the same direction.

It was Asia.

"When I saw you in Shirou Tsukiharu's house I thought that maybe it was you. Are you the Witch Asia Argento? I never expected to meet you in a place like this."

Xenovia said. Asia's body shook after she was called Witch. Irina seemed like she noticed as well and stared at Asia.

"Are you the rumored Witch? The former Holy-Maiden? You are said to have the power that can also heal Devils and Fallen-Angels, right? I heard that you were sent somewhere after getting exiled, but I never thought you became a Devil."

".…Ummmmm…..I…..I.…" Asia didn't know how to react to Irina and Xenovia.

"Oh Hell no," Shirou whispered under his breath, his wrath starting to build.

"It's okay. I won't tell the higher-ups what I saw here, so rest assured. People who were around the "Holy-Maiden Asia" will also get shocked as well."

Asia made a perplexed expression at Irina's words.

"But to become a Devil. The one who was called a Holy-Maiden. You fell to the lowest place you could. Do you still believe in our God?"

"Xenovia. There's no way that she, who became a Devil, still believes in God." Irina said with an amazed face.

"No, I can smell the "belief" from her. It might be an abstract way of saying it. But I'm sensitive to these things. There are people who betray the teachings and still have guilt within them because they couldn't forget the teachings. I can feel something similar coming from her."

Xenovia said it with sharp eyes and Irina stared at Asia even more with interested eyes.

"Is that true? Asia-san, you still believe in God even if you have turned into a Devil?"

"…I just can't put it aside. I believed in it for my whole life…" Asia replied to that question with a sad expression.

Shirou bit his tooth so hard that it made a noise with his teeth because of the anger he was feeling towards the two Exorcists.

Hearing Asia's answer, Xenovia took her Sword out from the cloth and pointed it towards Asia.

"Is that so. Then you should be cut down by us this instant. If it's now, I can cut you in the name of God. Even if you have sinned, our God will forgive you—"

That was as far as she got before she froze. Faster than she realized she felt a single finger on the side of her head and an oppressive aura so strong that it shook her because of how suddenly it appeared. The one standing behind her was Shirou who was pointing his index finger at Xenovia's head as if it was a gun. And he appeared there so fast that not a single person in that room followed his movement.

"I think you'd better stop there." Shirou's voice was calm but threatening, he clearly wasn't messing around. "Unless you feel like losing your head."

"Is that a threat?" Xenovia questioned, in the same tone.

"It's a fact."

"That's enough! Stop it, both of you!" Rias demanded.

"Stop it?" Shirou asked, not backing down. "You want me to stop? While this bitch just stands there and points a Sword at Asia, not to mention she has every intention of cutting her with it."

"You misunderstand, all I'm doing is trying to save her." Xenovia corrected. "As one of God's servants, it is my duty to save her soul."

"And there it is, that right there, that is why I despise you people." Shirou put his arm down and walked over to Asia. "Tell me, you say she needs to be forgiven? Then what pray tell has she done wrong?"

"You seriously don't know?" Irina genuinely asked. "She was blessed by God with the power to heal other followers but inside had the power to heal Devils and Fallen-Angels, only a witch can do that."

"Wrong!" Shirou immediately denied. "That's wrong and you know it! That whole thing about her power being 'God's blessing' was just some lip service. Asia's power is a Sacred Gear that doesn't discriminate on what it heals."

"It makes no difference."

"It is different." Shirou argued with Xenovia. "It means that whole 'Holy-Maiden' thing you all came up with just an attraction you all made up to get more followers, it was an act. This means the Church was the one at fault letting everyone believe something they knew wasn't true."

Xenovia looked at him angrily. "How dare you. What you say doesn't change the fact that she still healed a Devil."

"And so what, did you want her to just leave the guy there to his death?"

"Absolutely. That's what a servant of God should do."

"Like Hell it is. That's just what you think it is. You go around acting like anyone who doesn't agree with you is automatically wrong. When the fact is you people are just drowning so much in your own vanity that you can't accept anything that's inconvenient to you."

"Vanity?" Xenovia asked insulted. "We follow the teaching of God and live by them, all our actions are in the name of God. What about that is Vain?!"

"All of it. You think believing in God is all a person needs to live on? That's easy enough to say to do you even realize what you're saying. People can't survive on convictions alone."

"Do you think a Holy-maiden needs other people? What's important is the charity to others. The Holy-maidens are finished when they seek friendship and love from others. She could have continued to live with the love from God. So Asia Argento didn't have the right to be a Holy-maiden from the beginning. Xenovia said it as if it was an obvious thing. That only pissed off Shirou more. "God loved her. If nothing happened then it means that she didn't believe in him enough, or her belief was fake."

"Do you have any idea how Fucked up you sound. Love? Didn't believe enough? What does it matter how much you believe in someone or how much _love_ they give you when none of it is real in the first place?!"

.

.

.

Xenovia was now more shocked then she's ever been. Even Irina couldn't hide her shock either.

"…Shirou…What did you just say?" Irina asked, wondering if she heard him wrong.

"I said, God. Isn't. Real."

He didn't hesitate to say that. Xenova's eyes looked like the eyes of someone who was ready to murder.

"For you to utter such words in my presence is something worthy of death." She raised her Sword.

"Xenovia stop!" Irina stood in front of her. "He's only saying that to provoke you, and besides the only reason he can say things like that is because he's a Devil."

"Not true." Rias spoke out, still sitting. "Him being a Devil plays no part in this. That boy had no belief in God even before a reincarnated him, back when he was human."

That surprised Irina all the more.

"That can't be…" She turned to him. "Is that true?"

Shirou looked serious. "I already told you what I think."

"But why? When we were kids you believed as much as I did."

"Yes, when we were kids." Shirou clarified. "But as we got older, while you were away getting Holy-Swords and buying into this all the more, I struggled to survive after hitting the lowest point of my life. And the funny thing about when you have nothing but your thoughts, you start to think more clearly, like for example just how unreliable God really is."

"Wh-What?" Irina asked.

"Think about the history of mankind. The Salem Witch Trials which lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent people, The Crusades which only started because, the pope more land and money, the bigotry and prejudice against anything different or that aren't 'acceptable', the Ku Klux Klan which espoused from Protestantism." Shirou listed. "And it all seemed weird to me, after so many tragedy's and atrocities all of them said the same thing, "It was in the name of God" when it was clearly done of their own will. Not to mention this oh so wise God himself just seems to sit back and do nothing despite all this, or despite how many people begged for him to save them, only to get silence in return." He clenched his fist. "How could anyone believe in something like that?"

The other Devils in the room were surprised, they knew Shirou was a former believer but they never realized he took the subject this seriously. It was actually the first time they have ever seen him this passionate and fired up. Xenovia, on the other hand, seemed frustrated, at the fact that she hated everything Shirou was saying but couldn't deny it because he was technically wrong. And Irina just seemed devastated at hearing this from her friend.

She turned to Mika who had mostly been silent up till now. "And do you feel the same way, Mika-chan?"

Mika shrugged. "I'm not as passionate as him, but I do agree for the most part. Only for different reasons."

"Different reasons?"

"The way I see it, the concept of 'God' is just a system. Back during the early stages of man, humans weren't as capable as they are now and even though they were divided, they required a way of life that they could follow, thus religion was created. Despite that, they still needed a leader to follow otherwise this system wouldn't hold together, and so a symbolic one was made with the name of God." Mika elaborated, calmly. "And even though humans evolved, the theory of God still existed. But as people continued to divide themselves and had completely different beliefs and religions, every single one was based around the concept of a God. Which means that God is simply the default name of what holds people together."

"What you're saying is utter nonsense." Xenovia said strongly. "God created humans and those humans gathered together in worship of him, that is the source of religion."

"Even if that is the case, you can't deny that there are plenty of other faiths where, even though they have Gods, their beliefs sound ridiculous." Mika argued. "For example, the Norse Gods and their beliefs are acknowledged by society to be fictional and yet there are still those who believe it because of the fact that they have a God. And in the modern-day, there are many others who just makeup whatever God they want and can still get many followers."

No one could deny that. Though they were mostly surprised by Mika. The members of the Gremory Peerage knew she was smart, but her words were so deep and yet so calm. It was making it harder and harder to believe she was just a 14-Year-Old girl. The way so spoke so eloquently and with such knowledge made her sound like someone twice her age.

"However, I'm sure you've noticed all this is in past-tense." Mika continued. "The fact of the matter is that humans have no progressed to a point where they no longer need God. With the authority of Governments, Monarchy and Democracy, humans have created new ways of living to replace the old and new systems to follow that no longer require a God. And for that reason the number of believers has rapidly dropped in recent years, that's because since we can function in life without faith or religion, people choose to live without it. In simple terms; The world no longer needs God."

"So that's your answers then?" Irina asked, upset. "You don't believe in God, and you think you don't need to believe."

"That's right."

"Absolutely."

Shirou and Mika answered her respectively.

"Even for Devils, your words are the greatest form of heresy if I've ever heard." Xenovia said darkly. "But that's just what I would expect, from the children of Traitors."

Once she said those words, everyone in the room stopped, be it curiosity, shock, surprise, or confusion. Everyone zoned in on what Xenovia had just said. The siblings she was talking to though just seemed to have gone quiet.

"What are you talking about?" Shirou questioned.

"Xenovia, don't." Irina said, unsure.

"No, I think they have a right to know." Xenovia argued.

"Know what? What are you talking about." Shirou repeated, impatient.

"Tell me, how well do you know your parents?" Xenovia asked.

Shirou narrowed his eyes. "I don't see how that's any of your business. The real question is why do you act like you know them?"

"Because I know of them." Xenovia replied. "You might find this surprising but, they were both members of the Church. In fact, they were raised there."

Everyone in the room became wide-eyed at this bombshell. Rias even stood up.

"What? Shirou and Mika's parents were from the Church." Rias spoke shocked. "I knew they were believers, but…"

"But how? I know for a fact that they were Japanese." Mika pointed out.

"Foreigner child being raised in the Orthodox Church isn't uncommon." Irina explained. "It happens often."

"But growing up they told us never to go to the Church." Shirou remembered. "If they're from the Church why would they stay away from it?"

"Simple, because they were forbidden to set foot in any Church. Penitence from their betrayal." Xenovia answered.

"You keep mentioning, Traitor or betrayal. Mind clarifying what that means." Rias demanded, her eyes narrowed.

"Exactly what it sounds like. If they had just been ordinary people than leaving the Church wouldn't have been a problem. But they were anything but ordinary. The fact is they were two people who were very prominent enough those who serve God. I'm sure you've heard of them, the ones known as the Slash Empress and the Heavenly Sorcerer."

[WHAT!?]

Everyone gasped at what they just heard. All the Devils in the room were in complete awe and dumbstruck at this news. The only two who weren't were Shirou and Mika.

"The who?" Mika asked.

"I guessing based on everyone's reaction they're big news. But who are they?" Shirou asked.

"Shirou, those two names are the names belonging to some of the most powerful members of the Church ever to be born in this Era." Rias said, still shaken. "There are hardly any Devils in the world who don't them."

"Are they strong?"

"Incredibly strong." Kiba answered. "The Slash Empress isn't just a powerful warrior, she's said to be one of the greatest Swordsmen in the world. I heard about her from my master, he told me she was easily one of the top 10 Strongest Sword-wielders in the world. And her Sword-Play was so masterful that some say that many of her opponents were already killed before they even saw her reach for her Sword."

"The Heavenly Sorcerer is just as famed and formidable." Akeno continued. "He was a Magician that was known to be able to master any spell after just a bit of bit, his skill with magic was so great that he could easily use spells that some thought would take years to learn. Even Ultimate-Class Devils or Cadre-Class Angels couldn't learn magic as quick or as masterful as him. Among all Magicians of the Church, none knew more spells then him."

"They were both considered to be Gems that shined far more than any prodigy." Rias added. "But I heard they died a long time ago, it was a great loss for those who served God."

"That's right, even I heard they were dead, growing up." Asia agreed.

"That was just a cover-up. The Elders that run the Church wanted to hide the truth." Xenovia said unhappily. "Who could they. The truth was that even though they were great powers to the Church they mostly worked alone and mainly handled missions involving hunting Devils or monsters that were S-Class threats. But there was one mission where they had to work together. However, after the mission was completed and they returned, they told the Council that they were going to leave the Church and would no longer serve God."

"There are times when people can choose to leave, but people in High-Position have large responsibilities and can't just quit. It'd be like a deserting the military." Irina said, still not happy about this. "Under normal circumstances, they would have been treated as enemies and be disposed of but the Church didn't have the power to make enemies of both of them. And thus, they were branded as heretics and forbidden from setting foot any near a Church."

 _"Could all of this be true? It sounds unbelievable and yet, it does explain some things."_ Rias thought, processing all this. _"Take both Shirou and Mika for example, Shirou has been growing strong at an unbelievably fast rate and his talent for fighting is something I've never seen. And Mika is a prodigy in being a Magician and her ability to learn so many power spells was always strange. I always thought they couldn't be just ordinary humans, but if their parents were such powerful beings than it would all make sense."_

"The story doesn't end there." Xenovia continued. "Even though we couldn't act against them, the Church wasn't going to just let them go and so they placed them under surveillance. The Church dispatched a family that was also Japanese and sent them to Japan. Their mission was to leave close by the Tsukiharu's and carefully monitor their actions. If they stepped out of line, the Church would've acted against them."

Irina looked down guilty. "That family was my family." She then looked at them honestly. "But, this all started before any of us were born. And after I turned Seven and we moved away, that was because the Church had decided that enough time without incident had pasted to prove they weren't a threat and so the surveillance was rescinded."

"That explains why a family that has a child that became an Excalibur wielder was close to them at a young age." Rias noted.

"Still it is a shame. They should have continued monitoring them a little longer." Xenovia argued. "Even if they couldn't do anything about them, their children are a different story. And considering they turned their backs on their faith, not to mention fell so far as to become Devils, it would have been best to eliminate the two of you back then."

"Xenovia!" Irina said shocked that she would go that far.

"How dare you." Rias said with a deathly cold tone of disdain, walking up to Xenovia and wanting to give her a piece of her mind.

SLAP!

With that sound, everyone stopped.

The sound had come from the impact of a palm slapping a face. The one who was slapped was Xenovia, but the shocking part was the one who made the slap. It was Asia…..Yes, you heard right, Asia slapped Xenovia across the face without even thinking about it. That shocked everybody, including herself.

"A-Asia!?"

"What did you—?!" Akeno exclaimed with the same expression. Hell everyone in the room had the same expression as her and Rias. Though Mika looked pleased and Shirou didn't seem to react to it.

The blue-haired girl rubbed the red spot on her cheek. Asia gasped, realizing what she had done. Why did she do that. She never wanted to harm anybody. And yet she couldn't stop herself, nor did she regret it. "I-I'm sorry. I never wanted to do that. B-But I say such things about Shirou-san or Mika-san. The two of them are wonderful people and even if they're Devils or don't believe in God or if you think their parents betrayed the Church. I won't forgive anyone who would say such terrible things to them."

Xenovia narrowed her eyes.

"And just what are they to you?"

"My friends, family, they are everything to me!" Asia proclaimed without hesitation. "Even back when I was a Holy-Maiden I always desired one simple thing; To have a friend. And the way I am now that wish was not only granted but it was more than I ever dreamed of. I don't have any regrets because I truly believe that being here now, with Shirou-san, with Mika-san, with all my friends, I believe that is far more important to me than my faith in God!"

Asia, enough." Shirou said placing his hand on her shoulder. "You've made your point."

Asia heard him and looked around to notice that all eyes were on her. Her friends all looked at with either a face of happiness that showed that they were touched by her words or a look that showed they were pleasantly surprised by her outburst.

When she said all that Asia felt the same courage she felt on that day at the park when Shirou encouraged her to say what she truly wanted. And just like back then after saying her piece, her courage began to wane, her mind had begun to realize what she was doing and what she just said, causing her face to flush.

"Don't worry about it too much, Asia." Mika comforted her. "We pretty much already knew you felt that way."

"And I think you all don't realize something." Shirou said, his expression completely calm. "I admit I never knew any of what you told me. But, I honestly couldn't care less about any of it."

You could hear a pin drop from how silent the room was now.

"You…What?" Xenovia asked, completely lost.

"You don't care?" Rias also questioned confused.

Shirou shrugged. "I'll say it, I am surprised that Mom and Dad were these insanely powerful fighters. But personally I don't see how that should make a difference anymore, I mean all that was before I was born and the only version I ever knew them as was Mikoto and Hideki Tsukiharu, the ones who raised me." He said, feeling at peace. "Whatever they were before then was their own business that I'm not a part of and I don't plan on passing judgment on them based on what I heard about them from someone I just meet. I'm not like you."

"I agree completely." Mika added. "Mom and Dad are Mom and Dad, any titles or labels they had in the past won't change that." She placed her hand over Shirou's. "Not even a little. The only time you can judge someone and tell them what they did was wrong is after you've walked a mile their shoes and know what it was like for them. If you can't do that, then don't say a word."

Rias smiled at their display. _"I should have known they'd say something like that."_

"And as for the whole 'It'd be better if you were dead' line. Do you have any idea how many times I've heard stuff like that." Shirou asked rhetorically. "Longer than you might think possible, everyone wants me dead. To the point where it has lost all meaning to me. And if I took the time to worry about small stuff like that, I'd never get anything done."

Xenovia glared at the fact that he completely brushed her off.

Shirou then walked over to Asia. "Still though, that was the first time anyone got mad at my behalf and stuck up for me like that." He said kindly with a smile while patting her on the head. "I knew you had guts, but still. I could actually fall for you."

"Umm..." Asia became completely flushed and her whole face turned red.

"Smooth." Mika commented.

"Yeah, I am aren't I?" Shirou replied.

"Ahem." Xenovia coughed, interrupting their display simply because she found it irritating. "If that's all then we shall be leaving."

"Actually, that's not all." Shirou spoke out, stopping the two Exorcists from leaving. "That's something I've wanted to tell you since you showed up...Go home."

"What?" Xenovia asked, not amused.

"I know the situation now and whose behind everything. But the thing is, I've already decided to deal with this problem myself." Shirou elaborated. "To be perfectly honest, you two should just leave and go back to the Church, better that than go into a fight you have no chance of winning."

"Are you telling us to just running away with our tails between our legs!?" Xenovia asked, furious.

"In short, yes." Shirou answered uncaringly.

"Shirou, what are you saying?" Rias asked confused. "This is a matter concerning the Church and retrieving the stolen Excailburs, you can't just decide to get involved."

"Rias, think for a moment. If the stolen Excailburs and the Fallen-Angel who has them are such a big problem to both sides. And they're in this town, wouldn't it make sense to do whatever can be done to stop them. In which case, the moment Kokabiel came to this town he became our problem as well." Shirou reasoned. "By that logic, I have every right to go after him as they do."

"He has a point." Mika noted

"Don't encourage him!" Rias scolded.

"I'll just come right out and say it. I will defeat Kokabiel and destroy the stolen Excaliburs he has with him." Shirou declared. "It doesn't matter what happens to those Swords as long as he doesn't have them right. And to be frank I seriously doubt you two can pull this off in the first place. You'd be better off going home.

"This is ridiculous!" Xenovia shouted. "This is a mission we were entrusted to by our superiors as wielders of Excalibur. We came to Japan to regain what was stolen from us and we won't just leave because a Low-Class Devil told us to!"

"Xenovia, calm down." Irina suggested.

In truth, Irina felt a little insulted by Shirou's words but she didn't take it personally like her partner. In fact, she was still hoping this meeting could still end peacefully.

"You don't seem to get it. The only thing that'll happen if you two go along with this mission is your deaths." Shirou said seriously, followed by a smirk. "Besides, people who came here to die shouldn't go around acting as though they can win. After all, you did say you came here to die, remember? Besides, no matter how I look at it there's no way the two of you can beat this Kokabiel guy."

Shirou then walked up to Xenovia and looked her in the eye while he looking down on her.

"If you two are really the best the Church has then, of course, I'd have to do it myself." Shirou didn't hide the fact that he was looking down on her. "Hell I could beat both of without breaking a sweat, your Sword wouldn't even graze me."

"Is that a declaration to us…all of those in the Church? If I have to hammer you down by force than so be it. Gremory. It seems I'll have to turn your servant into Excalibur's next meal."

"Shirou, sto…"

Rias tried to calm me, but Kiba stood in front of her.

"That's good timing. I will be your opponent."

Kiba was carrying his Sword, and there was an enormous aura of intent to kill coming out of his body.

"Who are you?"

Kiba smirked at Xenovia's question.

"I'm your Senpai. Though I apparently was a failure."

That instant a countless number of demonic-swords appeared in the clubroom.

* * *

Later they were all outside of the Old School Building. Standing on a wide space that would provide them enough space to fight. Shirou and Kiba were standing next to each other and Irina and Xenovia were standing in front of them. Off the side near the edge of the tree line stood the other members.

"Then let's start."

Irina and Xenovia took their white robe off and were revealed to be wearing black battle purpose clothes. Xenovia was wearing a skin-tight, short-sleeved unitard with pauldrons, matching fingerless gloves that reached up to her biceps, and thigh-high boots, all of which were adorned with straps. Irina wore the same outfit with slight differences. Her shoulders were more exposed and her gloves have closed fingers. They weren't showing their skins but it looked…erotic…. You could see the curves of their bodies.

Shirou almost face-palmed when he saw them. It took a lot of his self-control to not sarcastically say "Really".

Xenovia took the cloth off her weapon and revealed her Excalibur. The Excalibur that Irina had also turned into the shape of a katana.

If you're wondering how things turned out like this.

After Kiba came in and it got worse. Then Xenovia made a suggestion.

"It might be interesting to test the strength of Rias Gremory's servants. Also, I'm interested in the strength of the so-called Senpai, as well as seeing if you can back up all your arrogance."

Xenovia accepted Kiba's challenge. She also added that this battle wouldn't be reported to the Church. Apparently they understood our position a little bit, so they made it so that it wouldn't be a problem if it was not a fight for life. To avoid unnecessary damage and getting noticed by others, Akeno put up a barrier around them. With this, they could fight as recklessly as they wanted.

 **Play OST Rurouni Kenshin - Last Wolf Suite**

"Even if it's just a match, be cautious of the Holy-Swords!"

Rias' warning reached them.

"Whatever." Shirou brushed off as he removed his weights.

Kiba, on the other hand, had activated his Sacred Gear and there were several Demonic-Swords around him.

"…Are you laughing?" Xenovia asked.

Kiba was laughing so much that it looked weird. A smile that made the atmosphere cold. There wasn't any trace of the refreshing smile he usually has.

"Yeah. The thing I wanted to defeat and destroy appeared right in front of me. I'm happy. Fufufu, I had even heard that by being close to a Devil and a Dragon, powers would gather. But for me to encounter it this early."

"So in other words, he assumed he would find the Swords faster if I was around." Shirou noted, hearing Kiba before shrugging. "Well, he wasn't wrong."

"…"Sword Birth", huh. The possessor can create any Demonic-Sword they imagine in their head. It's unique among the Demonic-Sword related Sacred Gears. I heard that there was a subject that avoided being disposed of by the Holy-Sword Project… Is that you?"

Kiba didn't answer Xenovia's question. He just directed his killing intent towards her.

Shirou smiled at his comrade's display. _"That's right Kiba, go as wild as you want. And Shirou-Sama will back you up all the way. The day you've waited your whole life for is here."_

"Shirou Tsukiharu-kun!"

He was suddenly interrupted from his thoughts when he heard a shout from the one standing in front of him. Irina Shidou.

"When I met the boy that I haven't seen for so long, and he turned into a Devil….. I was shocked."

She seemed really depressed. Though Shirou didn't seem to pay much attention to hear.

"…..Okay?"

"A pitiful Shirou Tsukiharu-kun. No, I will call you Shirou-kun since I knew you since a long time ago. And what trick has destiny played on us! I went to England because I found out that I can use Holy-Swords, and I thought that I could be a representative of God! Aaah, this also must be a trial that God has given me! The land that I haven't been back in for so long! A harsh destiny where my childhood friend has not only turned into a Devil but also abandon his faith! The way time moves is harsh! But by moving forward, I will turn into someone with the true belief towards God! Now Shirou-kun! I will give judgment to you with this Excalibur! Amen!"

Even though Irina was shedding tears, she seemed really eager to do it and pointed her sword at him. Her eyes were sparkling like a star! Almost as if she got drunk with her beliefs. Like she enjoying this situation.

At this point, Shirou just looked at her like she was an idiot.

The Silver-haired Devil groaned. "Why do I always get the nuts?" He complained, before raising his arm. "Activate Boosted Gear!"

 **[BOOST!]**

By his command, the Red Dragon Emperor's Gauntlet appeared and covered his arm. Both the Holy-Sword wielders seemed shocked after seeing his Sacred Gear.

"…Longinus?!"

"Is that a Boosted Gear? I never thought that I would meet the person possessed by the Welsh Dragon in a far eastern country like this."

Irina and Xenovia raised a brow.

Shirou was amused by their reactions.

"Unfortunately the surprises don't stop there."

With that said, Shirou removed his Student-Uniform blazer and revealed that Dyrnwyn was strapped to his back the whole time. He placed his hand on the Hilt, drew the blade from its sheath and brought out the Sword in all its glory. After letting it be seen, Shirou flared up the Swords Holy-aura and shocked his two adversaries a second time.

"A Holy-Sword? That isn't possible for a Devil! He should have been killed upon touching it!"

"Unless Irina, that is a fabled Dyrnwyn; The Sword Of The Red Dragon that only the Red Dragon Emperor can wield. I thought it was just a myth."

Shirou took a bit of pleasure saying their expressions of disbelief.

"Beautiful isn't it? I found this baby just recently. And yet, it cuts like a dream."

Xenovia glared. "It's an abomination to see a Devil wielding a Holy-Sword. But the fact you can has to mean you're a natural-type." She cursed. "I suppose I should say as expected of the son of the Slash Empress."

Shirou knew that was an insult but took it as a compliment. "Yeah, Mom really is the best."

"You will hurt yourself if your attention is on Shirou-kun!"

CLASH!

Kiba went on slashing towards Xenovia. The Holy-Sword and Demonic-Sword made sparks. Xenovia smirked after blocking Kiba's strike.

"Sacred Gear "Sword Rebirth" and "Boosted Gear". And also the "Twilight Healing" that Asia Argento has. All of them are Sacred Gear that are said to be heresy to us. Maybe it was natural for you to turn into a Devil."

"My power is also the power made by my comrades' hatred, who were killed while filled with regret! I will beat those with Excalibur with this power, and I will destroy that Excalibur!"

While Kiba and Xenovia were clashing with each other Irina rushed in slashing towards Shirou.

"Here I come, Shirou-kun!"

Though she was closing in fast, from Shirou's perspective she was moving in slow-motion. After facing the lightning-fast speed that Freed was using last night her speed was seeing he could read with his eyes closed.

Irina entered his striking zone and thrust her blade at him. Shirou, however, flipped his Sword upside down and had the hilt face upwards. Shirou raised the hilt upwards and it hit the bottom of Irina's blade knocking it upwards and messing up her balance. Seeing an opening, Shirou spin Dyrnwyn like a Bo-staff and slammed the dull-side of the blade into the back of Irina's neck, knocking her away and sending her trembling on the ground.

Shirou then held his Sword like normal again and gave Irina an unimpressed look.

"The Church must have really low standards." Shirou commented harshly. "That or they let anybody wield Excalibur these days."

"Don't get hasty." Irina said as she stood up and gripped her Sword. "I'm just getting started. After all." She charged at him again. "I wield this Holy-Sword in the name of God! Ahem!"

CLASH!

The chestnut-haired girl began her assault and continued to repeatedly slash and slice her Excalibur at Shirou. Though he simply kept parring or blocking her attacks without moving. All the while he kept his eyes focused on her movements and attack patterns.

As the fighting went on the others continued to watch.

"This is a surprise." Akeno noted. "Shirou-kun is having an easier time against Excalibur than I was expecting."

"Still though, I'm concerned." Rias had a worried expression. "The way he's fighting her is unusual. It's like he's simply toying with her."

"He's not." Mika corrected her. "In fact, I'd say he's completely serious right now."

Rias didn't seem to understand. "Why do you say that? From where I'm standing he's just brushing aside her attacks."

Mika sighed annoyed. "Then you obviously aren't paying attention."

"What?"

"Brotousai could've won by now by powering up and blowing her away with power, but then what would that accomplish?" Mika asked, rhetorically. "Right now he's watching her carefully, study how she fights, how her Excalibur works compared to other Holy-Swords, and most importantly how to defeat it. He wants to fully understand the way she uses that Sword so that he'll have more experience in facing Excalibur. And have an easier time beating other Excaliburs."

"So your saying Shirou-kun is using this fight to train himself against Excalibur?" Akeno asked.

Mika nodded. "That's right, this is a learning experience for him."

"But that's dangerous!" Rias said concerned. "Just one cut from that Sword could be fatal, he can't act recklessly when fighting an Excalibur fragment."

"Too bad!" Mika shouted back. "Broshin makes it a habit to do whatever he can to get stronger. During a fight he learns whatever he can before it's over so he'll be stronger afterwards, it may not be safe but it's what got him this far, so quit complaining."

Asia looked on worried and prayed for her friend's safety. "Oh Shirou-san, please be safe."

 _"But besides that, there's something weird about this fight."_ Mika thought. _"True he's studying her fighting style, but for some reason, it almost looks easy to him, or at least easier than it should. This is the first time he's fought an Excalibur and yet, rather than it looking like he's fighting blind and learning along the way. It looks like he has a similar experience and is comparing this to something else."_ She noticed with her eyebrow raised. _"Could he have fought Excalibur before, is that why he want out last night?"_

On the other side of this battle. Kiba created a Demonic-Sword where he stood and held it. He now had two Swords and went towards Xenovia.

"Now Burn! And freeze! "Flare Brand" and "Freeze Mist"!"

One of the Demonic-Swords created a whirl of flames while the other one made a cold air and silver frost. Kiba was attacking with fast-paced speed. But Xenovia was evading Kiba's attack, which came from all directions, with the minimum movements.

"The Knights swift move. And flame and ice Demonic-Swords. But you are too naïve!"

KACHING!

A single swing of Xenovia's turned Kiba's two Demonic-Swords to dust.

Kiba became speechless because his Demonic-Swords were destroyed with a single swing.

"My Sword is a mass of destruction. There's nothing it can't destroy."

Xenovia swirled around her Sword. She then pointed it upwards then thrust it into the ground.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

Suddenly the place where they were standing shook and the ground was rumbling. Kiba and Irina lost their balance and kneeled on the ground. Shirou, on the other hand, stood perfectly fine as if the tremors didn't bother him. There were clouds of dust in the surroundings. There was even dirt flying around the place. It even reached the spectators. A crater. There was a big hole at the place where Xenovia had placed her Sword.

"This is my Excalibur. It can destroy anything that comes its way. It's not called Excalibur for nothing."

Kiba made a bitter expression when he saw that.

"…Such a destructive power when it isn't a real Excalibur. So destroying all 7 Swords will be a difficult path."

 _"I thought you knew that going in?"_ Shirou thought, then he looked at Xenovia. "Still though, that power is more basic than was expecting."

"Geez! I'm all covered in dirt because you destroyed the ground, Xenovia!"

Irina wiped the dirt off her clothes while complaining.

 **[BOOST!]**

 **[TRANSFER!]**

Shirou Boosted his power once and gathered it all into his arm. It started to glow in a deep red light, filled with power.

"That Excalibur of yours isn't anything to brag about, I could do that myself if I wanted with my fists." Shirou informed Xenovia. "Watch me demonstrate!"

 _ **"DRAGON FORCE STRIKER!"**_

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

Shirou slammed his attack into the ground. Once again the place where they were standing shook and the ground was rumbling. Kiba and Irina lost their balance a second time and kneeled on the ground. Xenovia also fell to her knees at this tremor. Clouds of dust covered the surroundings. again and more dirt was flying around the place. Another crater was created. This time though the hole at the place where Shirou punched the ground was large than the one made by Xenovia's Sword.

In other words. Shirou's destructive power was stronger than that of Excalibur Destruction.

Those watching were covered in dirt.

"…Do they have to keep destroying the ground." Koneko complained.

"Ara, Ara, I guess Shirou-kun didn't want to be outdone." Akeno commented.

"That's Brociel's competitive side, the moment someone else starts showing off, he can't resist strutting his stuff as well." Mika informed them.

"We'll have to fix all this damage later, otherwise the Student Council will be on our case." Rias reminded them.

Back to the fight. Xenovia and Kiba got back up.

"This is unbelievable." Xenovia cursed. "Even if he is the Red Dragon Emperor, how can he possibly unleash more destructive power than Excalibur Destruction with just one blow?"

"Haha, that's just business as usual when it comes to him." Kiba said, confident. "Every time someone underestimates Shirou-kun they regret it once he demonstrates his power. Trust when I say, if he says he can do something, he can walk the walk as well."

Xenovia glared. "Is that a fact?"

Irina had to wipe off even more dirt on her clothes now.

"Oh come on already!" She complained loudly. "Now I'm covered in even more dirt."

"That should be the least of your problems." Shirou told her. "In case you still haven't noticed, I haven't taken a step from where I started."

Irina blinked and looked for herself. To her surprise he was right. Since this fight had begun Shirou hadn't moved an inch. He was still standing in the exact same spot he stood from why they began.

Irina didn't seem to like that. "Hey! Take me seriously you jerk!" She whined.

"I am, this is how I fight."

Shirou then started to think. _"I more or less figured her out. Irina is the opposite of Freed, she's fast but it's nothing to write home about, on the flip side she has a lot of skill and technique. She rushes in and uses slashes to cut her opponent on any part of their body that is unguarded, it's a basic style but also a polished one."_ Shirou deduced. _"Although she's still untrained, even though her Excalibur Mimic can transform into any weapon she's only using a Sword. I thought she was waiting for an opportunity but she's not that smart._ _She probably can't use anything besides a Sword."_

CLERK!

Shirou then placed his Sword back in its sheath and removed it from his back.

"That's enough, I've already seen through your fighting style, Irina." Shirou proclaimed. "This fight is over."

"What are you talking about?" Irina said in defiance. "We're just getting started."

Shirou held up his sheathed weapon and placed it by his hip while gripping his other hand on the hilt. "Irina, when I say it's over." He then entered a Batto-Jutsu stance. "It's over.

This time Shirou began charged forward at high speed. Irina moved back in response, but Shirou's advance was faster.

 **[BOOST!]**

In an instant, he was right in front of her with his Sword drawn from the sheath.

 _ **"RAPID SLASH! 10X"**_

And then both the Sword and the arm holding it seemed to vanish. Irina only heard repeated explosive noises. The Dyrnwyn was creating Sonic-booms as it moved faster than the speed of sound. Spraying blood and ripped clothing scattered in every direction around Irina and her body was knocked backwards after a slight delay. It was confined to a small location, but the attack had the force of an explosion.

Irina collapsed to the ground with ten wounds carved into her body. Her combat uniform was also sheared up, leaving her right leg exposed, her left glove torn up and her breasts completely out in the open.

Shirou re-sheathed Dyrnwyn and looked pleased with the result of his attack. He was so satisfied he didn't even comment on the way Irina's clothes were destroyed.

Those watching were awestruck.

"…Incredible!" Akeno said amazed.

"I barely even saw it, it was like an instantaneous consecutive strike." Rias said shocked.

"It wasn't. It was definitely a consecutive strike, but not an instant one." Mika explained. "He moved at Hyper-Sonic speed and slashed her in ten different points of her body at a speed that broke the sound barrier, this caused a chain-reaction of not only repeated Swords strikes but also a delayed shockwave with the force of an explosion afterwards."

"So then, you could see it?" Asia asked.

"Don't get the wrong idea, I know what happened but I couldn't see the attack at all, it was too fast." Mika replied. "I only know what happened after seeing the state Irina was in after the attack. But, I do know this much. This attack is newly developed."

"…Well yeah, it's a new move." Koneko said.

"You're not getting it, I'm not saying it's an attack he was saving for this fight but rather, an attack he just created." Mika clarified. "What you saw, was a new-born attack he taught himself to use with Dyrnwyn."

"Than, Shirou-kun created that move only recently?" Akeno asked.

Mika nodded. "I'd go so far to say it's only a few days old. And yet it's that strong."

Rias looked on at her Pawn with amazement. "Shirou, just how much will you continue to evolve?"

Her thoughts were interrupted when the sound of breaking metal was heard and their attention went back to Kiba and Xenovia.

"Haaaaaaaaaa!"

Kiba raised his spirit up and tried to make something in his hand. It turned into the shape of a Sword, but what appeared in Kiba's hand was a gigantic sword. Kiba held it with both hands while releasing an ominous aura. It was big. It was much longer than Kiba's height. It definitely was more than two meters. "The destructive power of that Holy-Sword or the destructive power of my Demonic-Sword! We will see which one is stronger!"

Kiba then swung it with force. The slash reached Xenovia, but she made a sigh as if she was really disappointed.

"It's a shame. You made the wrong decision."

BANG!

The pommel of the Holy-Sword hit deep into Kiba's stomach. It was a simple move like that yet it created a shockwave. It meant that even a single attack with a pommel has destructive power.

"Your weapon is the variety of the sword you can create and your speed. You would need a lot of strength to swing a gigantic sword like that, and you will lose the speed that you are proud of. Are you seeking a destructive power? From your fighting style, it's something unnecessary. Don't you even know that?"

"Gaha!" Kiba fell onto the ground after he vomited from his mouth. His Large Demonic-Sword was dropped to the ground and rested beside him.

"Even if it's not a hit with the blade, that hit just now will be enough to stop you from standing for a while."

Xenovia glared at Kiba once and turned around.

"…Wa…wait!"

Kiba reached his hands towards her, but everyone here knew that the match was over.

"Senpai, I suggest you fight with coolness the next time we fight. Rias Gremory, I trust you with the talk from earlier. Also, you should train your servants a bit more. There's a limit for polishing their battling style."

Kiba glared at Xenovia with hatred. Xenovia then looked at Shirou.

"And now for you."

Shirou smirked.

"Yeah me, glad you didn't get cold feet from watching me slice up Irina."

"I admit I underestimated you. But, your still no match for the power of my Excalibur or the power of the servants of God!"

Xenovia raised her blade, her expression as confident as her words.

Though Shirou just found it funny.

"Don't get too cocky, bitch. I'm still just warming up."

Xenovia takes her stance. "Draw your Sword."

Shirou looked over to where Kiba was laying and thought of something.

"Actually, I have a better idea."

Upon saying that he went over to where Kiba was and placed his hand on the large Demonic-Sword he created.

"I'm borrowing this." Shirou told Kiba as he picked up the Sword.

Xenovia narrowed her eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Making a point." Shirou replied, holding the large Sword with one hand. "Kiba may not be strong enough to use this Sword right, but _I_ can. And I'm pretty sure I can beat you with any Sword."

"I have had just about enough of your attitude." Xenovia gritted her teeth before charging at him. "Now fall!"

"That's funny." Shirou commented.

Once Xenovia closed the distance between them she prepared to slash him, but Shirou simply swung the Sword horizontally.

KACHIN!

The blades of both Swords clashed but to her surprise. Xenovia was the one blown away a few feet and hit the ground.

Both Kiba and the spectators were surprised as well.

 _"But how?"_ Kiba thought.

"Is the Sword Kiba-san made stronger than Xenovia-san's Sword?" Asia wondered.

"No that isn't the case. What you saw was a simple difference in power." Rias explained. "The Sword Yuuto made was built for Destructive power, but it can't compare to an Excalibur built for the same purpose. However, the difference is the wielders themselves. Shirou's physical strength must far surpass Xenovia's so when they enter a clash of power, she'll get pushed back."

"Not to mention the difference in their weapons reach." Mika continued. "They both have long Swords, but Big Bro's one is two meters long, so it has much more reach. He could hit her before her Sword could even reach him."

The fight continued as Shirou sidestepped and dodged a diagonal slash from Xenovia and jumped back to dodge a horizontal slash. He gained some distance before dashing at her with his fast speed. She prepared to strike but just as she was about to slash him, Shirou suddenly increased his pace and was right in front of her ready to strike. He swung his Sword at the left side of her body and she quickly raised her Holy-Sword to block it, she was able to shield herself from damage but the force of the attack made her skid back a few feet.

Xenovia grit her teeth in frustration at how this fight was going.

Even though the Sword should be too heavy and long to properly use skilfully or maneuver correctly, Shirou was able to wield it with the speed and grace of a Rapier, not to mention he could easily see through any attack Xenovia tried. It was because he was used to heavy-weight because of the weights he wears on his limbs, because of his great strength, the that Sword wasn't as heavy as his weights, he had an easy time wielding it.

 _"Of all the Excalibur wielders I've faced so far, she's the easiest."_ Shirou thought. _"She doesn't have any skill like Irina and just swings that thing around like a Warhammer or a battle-ax. It's basically the same as fighting Freed, just swap speed with power. No doubt smashing stuff is the only way this girl knows how to fight."_

"I thought Excalibur-wielders were supposed to be, oh what's the word, "good"?" Shirou asked, asking somewhat bored. "Whoever gave you this mission must have had low-standards."

And with that, Xenovia gave in to her frustrations and charged at him like a wild-bull.

"SHUT UP!" She roared after jumping in the air and aiming to land an overhead strike with both hands on the Sword. Leaving herself completely wide open for an attack.

"It's over." Shirou brought his Sword back and readied his attack.

 **[BOOST!]**

 _ **"RAPID SLASH! 10X"**_

Just like before both the Sword and the arm holding it seemed to vanish, though it seemed a bit cleaner than before. Like Irina heard repeated explosive noises. The noises of Sonic-booms from the blade moving faster than the speed of sound. It wasn't as fast as it was with Dyrnwyn but the power of the attack was much higher. Spraying blood and ripped clothing scattered in every direction around Xenovia and her body was knocked backwards after a slight delay. The attack had the force of an explosion but it was a bigger one than before and louder.

 **Music Off**

Xenovia collapsed to the ground and ten wounds were carved into her body as well. Unlike Irina, Her combat uniform was almost completely blown away. the only part that remained was the leather that reached around her hips and ended at thighs. Everything else was exposed, her breasts and entire torso were out in the open, her gloves were gone, along with her boots, and she was unconscious.

Shirou threw the Sword away to his right and it disappeared. "Well, that takes care of that."

Now for truth, the battle was over. With Shirou being the last one standing it was obvious to anyone looking. Irina and Xenovia were utterly defeated.

Later after the fight was over the ground was now repaired with magic making it the same as before the fight. Akeno also used her magic on Irina and Xenovia to restore their combat suits to what they were before the fight. And Asia was currently healing them with her Sacred Gear.

"Are you okay?"

While she was healing them, Xenovia just frowned and looked away.

"I have no intention of thanking you."

Asia just smiled and shook her head.

"That okay, I'm glad that your wound was minimal."

Once she was done healing they both stood back up.

"Still though, that was surprising." Irina said, almost impressed. "To think Shirou-kun would overpower both of us."

"Could you not say that like it's a good thing." Xenovia said annoyed at her defeat.

"You went off arrogantly saying that Kiba needs to polish his fighting style and he needs to cool down, and yet you lost because yourself got sloppy and lost your cool." Mika pointed out. "Doesn't really fill you with confidence if someone like that is going to take on a Leader class Fallen-Angel."

Xenovia clenched her fists. She would have attacked if she didn't already know that would just prove her point.

"Mika, stop that." Rias scolded. "Still I will agree that I also have concerns with it being just the two of you. Are you recklessly trying to die?"

"We understand the danger." Irina said. "There's already been one casualty. A Priest who came to this town to check things out ahead of time was killed."

"I know who killed him." Everyone turned to Kiba who was struggling to stand. "Freed Zelzan."

Xenovia and Irina both made sharp eyes at Kiba's words.

"I see. So it's him."

"Freed Zelzan. Former exorcist of the Vatican. The genius who became an exorcist at the age of 13." Xenovia informed them. "He had lots of big achievements because he kept on eliminating Devils and mystical beasts."

"But he overdid it. He even killed his allies." Irina added. "Freed never had any beliefs towards our God from the start. The only thing he had was fighting instinct and killing intent towards monsters. And an abnormal obsession for battles. It was a matter of time that he'd be charged for heresy."

"So someone like that was in my territory, but for you two to of encountered him?" Rias asked, before widening her eyes. "Wait, Shirou did you…?"

Shirou sighed. "Guess the cat's out of the bag." He muttered. "Yes, I fought Freed, that's where I went last night. He also had an Excalibur, it was one that amped up his speed."

"Excalibur Rapidly?" Irina gasped.

"That's the one."

"Then is that why you were asking about Excalibur? Because you knew an Excalibur was nearby and planned to fight it?" Rias asked.

"Actually no." Shirou denied. "I sensed a Holy-aura nearby and guessed an Excalibur was nearby. What I was actually sensing was those two." He pointed at Irina and Xenovia. "But on the way, I found Freed fighting this guy." He pointed to Kiba. "And so I fought him and shortly after I thrashed him."

"You've encountered him before?" Irina asked.

"Unfortunately." Shirou replied.

"So that makes three Excalibur wielders you trashed? Do I hear four?" Mika commented.

"It was a learning experience, fighting his Excalibur made it easier fighting other Excaliburs."

"Well, that answers one question." Rias noted.

"This is all interesting. At least now we know what we're up against." Xenovia and Irina put their cloaks back on. "I'll at least thank you for the information. But like I said before, don't involve yourselves in our affairs."

"You're pretty arrogant considering you lost." Shirou condescended her with a smirk. "I told you already, I'll be the one to take out Kokabiel."

Xenovia glared hatefully at him.

"Easy, Xenovia." Irina tried to calm her down.

 **Play OST Death Note - Special Investigation**

Shirou then just groaned. "You know what forget it." He drowned, confusing the others. "It'd just be better to do things more simply, we'll go after Kokabiel our way you guys just do it your way. Who both have the same long-term objective so it shouldn't be much of a problem, and whatever happens we'll deal with it when we get there. You do you, we'll do us."

Xenovia took in this information and after a few seconds, she just walks away without answering, though she had a look of reluctant acceptance on her face.

"Wait for me Xenovia. I'll take that as an okay, Shirou-kun. Tell me whenever you want to get judged. Amen."

Irina held her cross and winked at him. She then left the scene following Xenovia.

Once they were gone Shirou went over to Kiba who was still on the ground, trembling with anger at his defeat.

 _"Not just once, but twice."_ Kiba thought with frustration. _"Shirou-kun defeated two Excalibur user, with hardly any effort, he was incredible. And all I could do was lose disgracefully and watch. It's so frustrating."_

"Can you stand?" Shirou asked, standing over him.

The blonde Knight stood and nodded.

The two of them then began to leave themselves.

"Hold on! You two!"

They heard Rias' voice and turned around. What they saw was an angry Rias.

"I won't forgive you if you leave me! You are the Knight and Pawn of the Gremory group. I will also be troubled if you turn into a Stray. Wait this instant!"

"…I was able to run away from there, thanks to my comrades. That's why I have to put their regrets into my Demonic-Swords…"

After saying that Kiba turned away from her.

"Rias, this is just something that has to be done."

Once she heard Shirou say that she tried to him.

"Shirou, why are you even involving yourself in this so much? I still haven't approved what you plan to do."

"Whether you _approve_ or not isn't an issue." The two of them began to walk away. "I'm seeing this through to the end, no matter what."

"Kiba…Shirou…Why…?"

Rias watched them go with a sad face.

Unbeknownst to everyone there, sitting beside a tree a few feet away was a familiar brown-furred wolf that witnessed everything that had transpired. After seeing everything was over the wolf left.

 **Music Off**

* * *

Later that night. back at the Old Abandon Church. In a chamber that was created for baptism with a large pool of water that was only a foot deep was Irina.

With no other way of cleaning, Irina stood in the pool, Naked and washed herself with the water. "I don't get why I can't even take a bath comfortably." She complained, bending over to cup some of the water in her hands before throwing it onto her breasts. She then stood up straight and put her hands together. "Hmm, I bet this must be another trial from God."

"Do you really believe that?" Irina turned around and saw Xenovia walk into the chamber and into the pool, equally Nude. "After all you were the one who spent all of our money." She said angrily at her, before pointing to a badly drawn painting of a Saint leaning against the wall, near the entrance of the chamber. "And for what? A weird, suspicious-looking picture.

Irina, however, was offended. "What are you trying to say?! There's an honest to goodness Holy person in that image and you know it! The exhibition guy said so. And why would he lie?"

Irina saw that painting from an art-exhibit that she went to a few days ago and was offered to buy it from a sleazy looking art seller. Because of her naive personality, she hadn't realized she was scammed.

Xenovia sat down by the edge of the pool and with only her feet in the water. She sighed and face-palmed, upset by Irina's actions. "Why did I have to be stuck with you as a partner?"

"Wow when you get depressed you get like _really_ depressed, don't you?" Irina noted.

"Oh be quiet." Xenovia told her, feed-up.

 _RUMBLE!_

The two girls blushed when they both heard their stomachs growl in hunger, along with each other.

"First things first, we have to find a way to get something to eat." Xenovia decided. "We're hardly in the condition to retrieve Excalibur right now."

Irina smiled and made raised her hand to make an upbeat fist. "Yeah, you're right, in that case, you wanna threaten people from other religions so they'll give us money?" She said it so casually and yet she sounded serious. "Since they won't be with the Church, God'll totally forgive us…Probably."

Xenovia stood up. "If we're going that far, we might as well just steal a temple's offering box or something like that instead."

Irina turned to her and smiled. "Oh, that would be easier, good plan."

Xenovia soon sat back down. "No, we can't do that." She said, feeling down.

Irina crouched down in the water herself. "Right. I guess that wouldn't be very nice now, would it?" She said, feeling equally down.

They both sighed as their stomachs continued to growl in hunger.

* * *

The next day was a Day off at Kuoh Academy. But really, even if it wasn't Shirou wouldn't have gone anyway. He was still busy looking around for Freed or at least he was until a few minutes ago.

The Delinquent had received a text from someone to meet him at the small cafe beside the Kuoh train station and so was sitting one of the tables outside the cafe waiting for whoever he was supposed to meet.

"Hope this doesn't take long." He grumbled.

"Tsukiharu?"

Shirou sat up when he heard a familiar voice and saw that standing next to his table was his fellow Delinquent, and the Pawn of the Sitri Peerage, Takeru Saito. He looked as surprised as Shirou upon seeing him.

"Saito? Wait are you the one who sent me that text?"

"You got one too?" Saito brought out his phone and showed he had the same text that Shirou received. "It just appeared in my Inbox under the name anonymous."

"We both have the same text? Then who called us here?" Shirou wondered.

"That would be me."

This time they both turned and saw the one that appeared before them was Shirou's closest and one of his only friends, along with his usual training partner, as well as a half Human, half Wolf-Youkai hybrid. Ren Todo.

"Ren?"

"Todo?"

Shirou and Saito respectively showed surprise at the one who called them here sat down himself.

"Yeah me. Glad you both made it."

"Hold on, why'd you call me here? And why with him?" Saito asked.

"Yeah, and why does the text say anonymous?" Shirou asked.

"I used a different phone that wasn't in your contact list so you wouldn't know I sent the text." Ren then looked at Saito. "If I used my usual phone you'd have come, but I couldn't guarantee that Saito would. So I made you both come out of curiosity."

"Okay, now the question still remains on why?" Saito reminded him.

Ren had a serious expression. "First off, let me confess something. Saito, I know about you guys being Devils."

Saito's eyes widened surprised. "You what?!"

Shirou also looked a little surprised. "Ren?"

Ren smiled. "But don't get the wrong idea, I know because I'm part of the supernatural, you could say." Ren then brought his hands forward and they glowed a small red light. Once the glow stopped what appeared over his hands were two red gloves with orange finger-covers and black-knuckles. And on the center of the back of his hands were a Crimson-flame design on both gloves. "I'm the same type as you guys."

"Wait, you have a Sacred Gear two?" Saito asked, both surprised and curious.

Ren nodded. "That's right, it's called Pyro Drake. As the name suggests it gives me Pyrokinesis."

In truth, Shirou wasn't surprised by Ren's Sacred Gear. Because the fact was that Ren already showed it to him because Ren was half-Human he was able to be born with one and he used occasionally whenever the two of them trained together. Mika is also aware of this obviously, but Rias and Asia also know. After telling Shirou he had revealed himself to Rias, Ren decided to let him know he was going to inform her about his Sacred Gear as well. The reason for that being Shirou was continually coming back from training with burns and they started to become suspicious.

Although Asia still doesn't know Ren is a Youkai, she is hopelessly naive so they don't have to worry about her asking any more questions on the matter.

That's why Shirou was confused. Even if Ren hadn't revealed his true secret yet why would he reveal this one and why to Saito?

These questions were soon answered.

"As for why I'm telling you this." Ren paused and made his gloves vanish before answering. "It's because I want to lend you my help."

"Help me?" Shirou blinked. "…How?"

"I already know what your planning, you want to hunt down Excalibur."

"You know about that?" Shirou thought about it and then realized something. "You were watching yesterday?"

"That's right." Ren confirmed. "When two unfamiliar presences show up at school even I'd obviously want to know what's happening. And now that I know what you plan to do I can't let you go in alone."

"I've got Kiba." Shirou argued.

"After yesterday's fight can you really say he'll be of much help?" Ren shot back.

Shirou had trouble answering that and said nothing.

"You need more manpower in a fight like this so I want to add myself to the roster." Ren looked at Saito. "And I also called you because you're the only other person in town strong enough to be of help in this fight."

"So you want to drag me into another group's problem?" Saito grumbled annoyed.

"You won't do it?"

Saito answer at first and just got more comfortable in his seat. "Well, I did hear about the situation from Sona and Tsubaki, the whole thing about stolen Excalibur fragments in this town and the string-puller being a Fallen-Angel Leader. But I didn't hear about Tsukiharu and the Knight jumping into the fray themselves."

"I'm not just going to sit back and watch things play out." Shirou spoke out.

"I seriously doubt your boss would approve of that." Saito reminded him.

"When has not "having permission" for something stopped anyone at this table from doing anything, ever?" Shirou argued.

"Good point." Saito admitted. "And I do agree that it would suck ass to just do nothing in all this and pretend it doesn't concern me. Not to mention I haven't been in a single fighter since I became a Devil." He weighed his options. "All right, I'm in."

"You'll help us?" Ren asked relieved.

"Yeah." Saito confirmed. "All joking aside, if a fight is going to start, then I'm not backing down. I don't care if Sona isn't okay with it."

"All right then, now that that's decided let's find Kiba and go." Shirou brought out his phone.

"Hold it, that's not everything." Ren stopped him. "There's still one more thing. I told you we need manpower for this fight. I also meant we should link up with those two Exorcists from yesterday."

Shirou knew he meant Irina and Xenovia and glared. "We don't need their help. Since you saw what happened before you should know that."

"You mean the fight you guys had. Just because you beat them like that doesn't mean their weak, it just means you that much stronger." Ren corrected him. "Besides, you already know the kind of enemy we're about to face, things will already be hard enough as is and we can't afford to waste energy clashing with others, especially when he has the same goal." He reasoned. "Personal feelings asides, it's in the best interest of both sides that we work together on this fight, I'm sure even they would agree."

Shirou knew he was making good points but he still didn't like it. He started to clench his fist.

Saito chimed in. "Listen, I don't know all the details but, it's not like we actually have to get along with them, just cooperate for the time being. Besides when all's said and done the result is still the same, so why sweat the details. Just worry about the fight."

Shirou considered his words and after a few seconds, he unclenched his fist and sighed.

"I suppose that's true." Shirou admitted. "I'll agree to team up with them, but don't expect smooth sailing."

"Good enough, I guess." Ren shrugged before getting up from his seat. "Now we just have to go to them, luckily I know where those Exorcists are."

"Okay, let's go." Saito said as he and Shirou stood up too.

"Yeah, but first." Ren turned around. "Why don't we tell whoever's back there to come out."

Upon saying that there was a small ruffling sound and two small figures came out of hiding from behind the surrounding wooden grass holders. The first was Koneko and the second was the other Pawn of the Sitri Peerage; Ruruko.

"Koneko?" Shirou asked.

"And Ruruko? What are you doing?" Saito asked.

The First-Year Rook stepped forward. "You don't look all that surprised, you knew we were there?"

"We could feel someone was there, but I couldn't tell how so I was going to wait until you moved before trying anything." Shirou clarified.

 _"I didn't feel anything?"_ Saito thought deadpan.

"Moving on, how much did you here?" Shirou asked.

"All of it, actually." Ruruko said nervously. "I came here because I wanted to know what you were up to, and then I meet up with Koneko-san who was doing the same thing." She explained. "We got here the moment Ren-Senpai showed you his Sacred Gear and heard everything after that?"

The guys looked at each other.

"What do we do now? We can't let them tell Rias and Sona about this." Saito reminded them.

"We could erase their memory, I basically got the hang of that spell ever since Rias showed me." Shirou suggested.

Ren nodded. "Fine, let's try it."

"…Wait." Koneko spoke out and stopped them. "We didn't come here to stop you and we won't tell. I want to help you as well."

"What?" Shirou was surprised. "But I thought you sided with Rias on these things?"

"I don't want to go against the Chief, but I will help as well. It's about Yuuto-Senpai, right?" Koneko answered, unusually determined.

"What about you Ruruko?" Saito questioned.

"W-Well, I…" Ruruko seemed very nervous around Saito, she even started to blush. "I know that President Sona wouldn't approve of any of this, but I know I can't persuade you to stop. So I just want to do whatever I can to make sure you make it through this safely." Her voice was quiet but her eyes were serious.

Ren scratched his head. "Well, it's you guy's call. What do you want to do?"

"Ruruko's new but she's pretty good at Martial Arts and she's got decent speed too." Saito informed them.

"And Koneko's a Rook and she's got a lot of power. I'm pretty sure she won't be in the way." Shirou informed them.

"All right, I guess the First-Year duo is in." Ren accepted.

"Okay, you guys go talk to the Exorcists and I'll go fill in Kiba." Shirou decided.

"Fine, I'll text you where to meet us later." Ren told him.

And with that, they all left to begin their objectives.

* * *

A few minutes after parting ways with Shirou, the merry band of three Devils and a Youkai made their way past the busy streets of Kuoh the find Irina and Xenovia. Leading the group was Ren.

"So just be sure, you know where we can find those two right?" Saito asked, walking with his hands in his pockets.

"That's right." Ren confirmed. "It wasn't all that hard, really."

"But how though?" Ruruko asked. "Wouldn't two wielders of Excalibur be harder to find?"

"Please give blessings to the lost lamb!"

"Please give charity to us on behalf of the Father in Heaven!"

Turns out finding them was fairly easy. There were two girls wearing white robes, praying on the road. They were standing out. It looked like they were quite troubled. People walking past them were giving them odd glances. The other three looked confused while Ren just sighed.

"Yeah, they've been doing that for a while." Ren said, aloof. "Honestly, it'd be harder to not find them."

"Hey," Saito leaned down to Koneko and whispered. "You've seen them before right?" He pointed to the girls a few feet away. "Is that seriously them?"

Koneko nodded. "…Yes, there's no doubt."

"Great." Saito face-palmed and got back up. "If that's them, I see why Tsukiharu didn't want them on board."

Ren clapped. "First things first. Let's talk to them."

* * *

"Delicious!" Xenovia exclaimed, rapidly eating her food. "Japanese cuisine is delicious!"

"Yes, yes!" Irina agreed, scarfing down her food too. "This is it! This is the taste of the food of my homeland!"

Irina and Xenovia started to fill their stomachs with the food they ordered at a family restaurant. After having the two of them agree to let the others buy them food, Ren and the Devils took them to a family restaurant. While the four of them only had drinks, Xenovia and Irina looked as though they were going out of their way to order everything on the menu. While it might seem like this would be expensive Saito said he would cover the cost.

Although that was only because he swiped random guy's credit-card and planned to use that instead of money.

Thankfully, on their fifth plate of food, the girls were finished eating. "What just happened?" Xenovia asked, with her hood still over her head. "It's the end of the world to get helped by a Devil."

"We practically sold our souls to the Devil." Irina said in misery, with her hands together. "How can we ever be forgiven?"

"Just for the record, I'm _not_ a Devil." Ren pointed out. Emphasizing the not.

Saito hit him in the shoulder. "You're also _not_ helping!" He said angrily.

"Aaaah God, please give charity to these Devils." Irina prayed while using her cross, Xenovia prayed with her.

CLANG!

[Augh!] The moment she said that the three Devils were hit with intense pain to their heads, making them grab their heads in agony. Ren thankfully was unaffected having not been a Devil.

"Does really hurt that much?" Ren asked curiously.

"Yeah, it hurts like a Son-of-a-Bitch." Saito answered in pain.

"Ah, I'm sorry." Irina said, smiling with a cute face, as Xenovia drank her water. "It's kind of a habit."

"Now then, let me ask. Who are you?" Xenovia asked with a stern expression without showing any hostile intention. "I know that those three are Devils but the fact that you went hurt by are prayer means that you aren't. Not to mention I recognize that White-haired girl as one of Rias Gremory's servants from yesterday, but I don't know the other two."

"Let me explain."

After saying those words Ren began to inform on who he was, who the others were, why they were they approached the two of them, and most importantly what they were planning. Once that was done, they asked Xenovia on whether or not they were willing to work with them.

"I see, I never imagined a human would be allied with the Devils of this town." Xenovia noted.

"Devil, none Devil, doesn't make a difference to me." Ren told her. "All that matter is, I'm on Shirou's side, it's that simple."

"Besides that." Saito chimed in. "We gave you your answers and you pigged out the menu, so now it's your turn to answer; are you in or out?"

They were silent, there was a lot of tension in the air. All they could do is wait for an answer and if need be, wait for a fight to break out. Xenovia opened her mouth.

"Yeah. Maybe it's okay leaving one Sword to you guys. If you can destroy it, that is. But make sure that your identities aren't revealed. We also don't want our high-ups and enemies to think that we are connected to you guys."

Ruruko blinked in surprise, not expecting that answer. "…So, is that a yes?"

"Hey, Xenovia. Are you sure? I mean they're Devils, you know?" Irina raised an objection.

"Irina. To tell you the truth, it would really be tough to retrieve the three Excaliburs and to battle Kokabiel with only the two of us." Xenovia reasoned.

"I know that. But...!"

"The minimum objectives we have to achieve are destroying the three Excaliburs or take them back. If our Excaliburs are going to be stolen as well then we should break them before it happens. Even if we use the last resort, there's only a 30 percent chance that we will succeed in our mission and return home safely."

"Arguably." Saito muttered quietly.

"Shh, don't stop her, she's on a roll." Ren whispered to him.

"Even so, we thought that the success rate was high enough to come to this country prepared to put our life on the line." Irina reminded her.

"Yeah. The higher-ups also told us to continue with our mission as well and dispatched us to this country. It's almost self-sacrifice."

"And isn't that what we, the followers, desire for?"

"I changed my mind. My beliefs are flexible. So I can act in the best way."

 _"…Didn't she say yesterday that she was perfectly fine dying for her beliefs?"_ Koneko thought.

"You! I have been thinking about it for a long time, but your faith is a bit weird!" Irina noted.

"I won't deny it." Xenovia shrugged. "But I think that it's our duty to accomplish our mission and return safely. I'm going to live and continue fighting for God. Am I wrong?"

"…You are not wrong. But..." Irina still seemed reluctant to agree.

"That's why we won't ask for help from the Devils. Instead, we ask for help from a Dragon. The high-ups didn't tell us not to borrow the strength of a Dragon."

They all immediately knew she was talking about Shirou.

"I never thought that I would meet Sekiryuutei in a distant country like this. Even if he turned into a Devil, you and I both saw that the Dragon power within him is was incredibly potent. If it's like the legend says, then he could increase your power to that of a Satan. If he gains power equal to that of a Satan, then he can break the Excaliburs without breaking a sweat. I also think that it was God's doing that we had this meeting." Xenovia said joyfully.

Irina thought for a moment. "Hey, I've had this on my mind for a while but. Is the reason you want their help because you're worried about fighting Kokabiel without Shirou-kun?"

Xenovia's expression then changed to that of dear caught in the headlights.

"No, not at all!" She denied hastily. "I'm just thinking on a tactical stand-point."

Although no one was convinced.

"Oh, that explains it." Saito noted with half-lidded eyes.

"…Not really surprising considering she was crushed by Shirou-Sempai without being able to even graze him." Koneko added with the same expression.

"I guess losing humbled her a bit." Ruruko rationalized.

"I told you that's not it!" Xenovia said frustrated, before taking a deep breath. "Anyway, since we've agreed to it, you'd better get the Sekiryuutei to agree as well."

"That's already been dealt with." Ren informed her. "He said he'll agree to cooperate as long as we have the same goal. Right now he's telling Kiba about all this, we plan on meeting up with them after talking with you about the plan."

"Then it's decided." Xenovia got up from her seat and all the others did as well.

Ren got out his phone and called Shirou. "Hey…Yeah…Yeah, they're on board… Okay, we'll see you there." He hung up. "All right, let's go to the meeting spot."

And with that, they all cleared out of the restaurant.

* * *

It was the afternoon by the time they meet up with Shirou and Kiba, the sun was already setting. The meeting spot was within the local park area nearby the location Shirou had brought Asia to, learned about her past, squared off against Raynare and her allies and killed the three Fallen-Angels, many months prior.

Right now the group had found the two of them standing near a small water fountain.

They filled in Kiba on all the details.

"To tell the truth, I feel unsatisfied when the wielders of the Excaliburs are giving me permission to destroy it."

"That's a rough way to speak. If you were a "Stray-Devil", I would have cut you down without any time to spare."

Kiba and Xenovia glared at each other. She reached for her Sword beneath her cloak and Kiba summoned one of his.

"Don't draw them."

However. Before a fight could break out they both stopped when they heard the sound of Shirou voice along with him placing his hand on Dyrnwyn's hilt and ready to drew it while having his own glare that showed he wasn't in the mood for this.

"Keep your Swords sheathed." Shirou spoke as if he was ordering them. "Do not make me draw mine."

After hearing the threatening way he worded that, the two of them put their Swords away.

"Better." Shirou let go of his own Sword and turned to Ren. "Still, I'm more surprised that you were able to get them to agree so fast."

"Actually it wasn't as hard as I was expecting." Ren admitted.

"Apparently the blue-haired one got cold-feet about all this after getting wrecked by you yesterday." Saito informed him.

"…Now she doesn't want to fight Kokabiel without your help." Koneko added.

"hmm." Shirou nodded. "Makes sense."

"Can you all stop bring that up!" Xenovia shouted annoyed.

"Moving on." Irina changed the topic.

"So you do hold a grudge regarding the "Holy-Sword Project"? Against the church and the Excaliburs?"

Kiba sharpened his eyes at Irina's words. "Obviously." He replied with a low and cold voice.

"Why would he not?" Shirou thought, looking at Irina like she was an idiot.

"But Kiba-kun. Thanks to that project, the research on Holy-Sword users showed results. That's why it created people like Xenovia and me who can synchronize with the Holy Swords."

"Do you think it's a forgiving act to kill all the test subjects because the project was thought to be a failure?" Kiba looked at Irina with eyes filled with hatred.

"What are you, some kind of idiot!?" Shirou said out-loud at Irina. "You seriously think that something, as messed up as that project, can just be glossed over because it happened to benefit others later down the road? The ends don't justify the mean, Irina."

Irina didn't know how to respond. Then Xenovia spoke,

"That incident also became one of the worst cases among us and people felt disgusted about it. The person in charge of that project at that time was said to have a problem with his belief. So he was charged with heresy. Now he's one of those people on the Fallen-Angels side."

"On the Fallen-Angel's side? What's the name of that person?" Kiba took interest and asked Xenovia.

"…Balba Galilei. The man who is called the Genocide Archbishop." Xenovia answered.

"…If I go after Fallen-Angels, then can I reach him…"

Kiba's eyes had the color of a new determination. Just knowing his target was a big step for him.

"Anyways, let's move onto the cooperation strategy." Xenovia took out a pen and used it to write on a memo pad. She gave us her contact details. "If something happens, call this number."

Shirou took it and put it in his pocket. "Got it. And no offense, but I'm not giving you my number."

"Fair enough. Then that's it then. We'll contact you at another time, Sekiryuutei and others."

"Really, others." Saito said deadpan.

"Well, we never actually told them our names." Ruruko reasoned.

Xenovia looked at Shirou seriously. "Before we go I will tell you one thing. "Vanishing Dragon" has already awakened."

"…The "Vanishing Dragon"?" Shirou repeated, astonished by this information. _"The Dragon Ddraig warned me about that's supposed to be my Rival. Guess I know how I'll be fighting after this mess."_

"You will meet him eventually, but in your current state, despite how powerful you may be, you can never win." Xenovia proclaimed.

Shirou just smirked. "Listen, lady, my "current state" as you called it isn't my limit. I'm a lot stronger than you seem to think." He proclaimed Pridefully. "And I'm still growing by the day, so even if I'm not as strong as this "Vanishing Dragon", I will be soon enough."

"You sound pretty confident."

Xenovia noted which amused Shirou.

"Wait until you've seen me serious, then you'll see why."

Xenovia didn't respond.

Irina then walked up to Shirou with a nervous expression.

"To tell the truth, I was really upset when you told me you stopped believing and ever since we were reunited all I've ever done has only seemed to upset _you_ , but…" Irina hesitated before finishing. "But I still want us to stay friends. Even if you're a Devil I still consider you my friend, so could you do the same, Shirou-kun."

From the pleading look in her eyes and his own instinct, Shirou could tell she wasn't lying about what she said. Although her gaze made him uncomfortable and the fact that they were at odds just yesterday, he still knew she wasn't intentionally a bad person. Just to oblivious to how her words and actions can affect others, unlike Xenovia who was perfectly aware.

Shirou sighed. "…I suppose, but it'll take some getting used to."

After hearing his answer, Irina's expression immediately changed to a relieved and excited one and she showed this by quickly rushing and hugging Shirou.

"I'm so glad you feel that way!" She exclaimed before she let go and began walking away with Xenovia. "We'll see you later." She told them with a wink before they were out of sight.

Shirou just stared with an unhappy expression, clearly not pleased by what just happened.

"I hate being randomly hugged." Shirou muttered.

The fact that he could say that he "hated" it like that was enough to tell you how often it happens.

"…Shirou-kun. Why did you do this?" Kiba asked quietly.

"Huh?" Shirou rubbed the back of his head. "Don't ask me, Ren was the one who brought everyone together."

Kiba then turned to Ren. "Ren-kun, I am surprised to see you involved in all this and I do have questions. But right now I'd like to know, why did you bring everyone together for this?"

"Do you really need to ask?" Ren asked rhetorically. "There's no big reason or anything, I just wanted to help out my friend. Besides, everyone else here has their own reasons for joining in. It's not like e need permission."

"He's right y'know." Saito added.

Kiba still didn't look satisfied. Then Koneko spoke.

"…Yuuto-Senpai. I would get lonely…if Senpai disappeared." Koneko put on a sad face. She is usually unemotional, so the sudden change had a lot of impact on all the guys here. "…I will help you…that's why please don't go."

Kiba seemed troubled, but then put on a smiley face. "Hahaha. I give up. If Koneko-chan says that to me, then I can't do reckless things."

"Really? Because I wouldn't change my mind at all even if she said that to me." Saito argued.

"Me neither. Must be a "Knight" thing." Shirou guessed.

"Okay. I will work with you." Kiba said with acceptance. "Thanks to Shirou-kun, I know who my true enemy is. But since we are doing this, we are definitely going to defeat the Excalibur."

"Before that can I ask a question?" Ruruko asked, getting everyone's attention. "I've been wondering this for a while now but, how is Kiba-Senpai related to Excalibur?"

Saito raised a brow and turned to her. "Not shy about bringing up touchy subjects are you?" He asked sarcastically. "Learn some tact would ya."

"Huh? No, no I just—" Ruruko became flustered.

"It's fine." Kiba interrupted them. "You all deserve to know."

Kiba then started to talk about his past. The project that the Catholic Church planned secretly. Project Holy-Sword. The test to make lots of people who can use Holy-Swords was taking place in a certain institute. There were boys and girls who had talents at using Swords and a possessor of Sacred Gear. Day after day, they were going through inhuman experiments. They were being experimented on and had their rights of freedom taken away. They weren't treated as humans and their lives were ignored. But they had a dream. To live on. They were forced to believe that they were loved by God, and they were just waiting for "that day" to come. They believed that they would become special beings. They believed that they could become people who could wield Holy-Swords. But the result was "disposal". Kiba and his comrades couldn't use the Holy-Swords.

"…Everyone died. They were killed. Killed by those who serve God. No one saved us. Just because we couldn't use the Holy-Swords. Other boys and girls were put under poisonous gas while still alive. They put poisonous gas on us while saying "amen". We vomited blood and suffered on the floor. Even so, we were seeking help from God."

Kiba told them his story. Shirou already knew all this but the others listened to him silently. Kiba explained how he managed to escape from the laboratory, but the poisonous gas had already infected him. Apart from certain people, the test subjects who had lower abilities than average were all disposed of because they weren't needed. Kiba, who managed to escape met Rias who came to observe Italy as he was dying. And now he was here.

"I want to accomplish my comrades' regrets. No, I don't want to make their deaths be in vain. I need to keep on living in their place, and I have to prove that I am stronger than Excalibur."

Ruruko had tears streaming down her eyes and Koneko just had her head down upset. Ren just stayed silent.

Saito clenched his fist and grit his teeth. "Pisses my off just hearing about it."

"That's how I felt when I found out." Shirou added.

"But still, I'm starting to wonder if I have the ability to do so." Kiba spoke with self-loathing. "Both when I fought Freed and again yesterday, I was soundly defeated without doing a thing. And in the end, all I could do was rely on Shirou-kun."

Shirou walked up to him. "Is that what you think?"

Kiba nodded. "It is, even yesterday I made a mistake an amateur would make. And it cost me the fight."

"Kiba, do you know what your strengths are?" Shirou asked him.

"Speed and my Sword Birth."

"And?"

Kiba blinked confused. "What else is there?"

"You don't get it." Shirou shook his head. "I just watched a recording of you fighting Siris, you actually fought her. And you won using your strengths; Technique. Thinking. And Fineness. You keep a clear head, keep fighting until you see an opening or problem in how your enemy fights, and when the time comes you move in to strike. Those are your strengths." He explained to Kiba. "And in my opinion, in turns of both Technique and Swordsmanship, your better than any of the Excalibur users I've faced."

"But I was defeated by them." Kiba reminded him.

"Because you didn't have a clear head." To show him an example, Shirou unsheathed Dyrnwyn. "The inside of your head is like this blade." He then makes the blade ignite with flames. "Right now your burning with anger, so much so that you can't control yourself. No one can win like that. But anger does have its uses." The flames around the blade then went out. "Instead of throwing it around wildly, let the flame go out. Forge your hatred into a sharp unforgiving blade that will cut down your enemy and no one else. If you can control your wrath, your wrath will make you the strongest."

Kiba listened to the words of his friend and could feel how insightful they sound, it was as if he couldn't not believe to him because it sounded so right. Like hearing the answer to a question you've been asking yourself for so long but never realized what it was. Until now.

The reason Shirou sounded so sure of his words was because, that was the mindset he created for himself. In the past, no matter how much he raged of let loose his wrath upon others, not once did he let that wrath consume him. Rather than letting it became a ragging flame that consumed everything, it was like unleashing an unlimited power that made him lock on to his enemy and do everything he could to destroy them and only them.

It was a controlled wrath.

Ren breathed in and sighed. "Everyone, let's part ways for now. We can meet up again after Shirou gets the call from Xenovia."

"Sounds good." Shirou sheathed Dyrnwyn.

Everyone else either nodded or gestured that they agreed. And with that, they all parted ways for now. Kiba and Koneko walked off together in one direction, Saito and Ruruko walked together in another one, and Shirou and Ren walked away together in a third direction.

* * *

A day later, Rias and Sona were back in the latter's sauna. Rias told her about what had happened to her Knight along with her Pawns involvement, and the Black-haired girl took in every bit of it. "Really?" She asked astonished. "Kiba did that?"

Rias nodded with a miserable expression. She didn't know who else to turn to other than Sona. The Red-head just needed to speak to another heir. Master-to-Maser. "Do you think…Did I make a mistake?" She asked, as their slim bodies sweated.

"He is still part of your house, right?" Sona asked concerned.

"Of course, no matter what he says there's no way I'd let Kiba leave me like that." Rias said, completely sure. "…He's just being dramatic." That part didn't sound sure.

Sona noticed that. "Why do you sound like you have trouble believing that?"

"It's just…It's something Shirou told me before." Rias reminisced. "He said; After a person feels like they lost everything, that feeling can't just go away over time. No matter how much you smother them or try to make them forget about it." She spoke depressed. "Maybe I was just being naive when I thought I could make him forget about his revenge."

"I'm surprised, Shirou really said something like that?" Sona asked.

"He did." Rias confirmed. "What's more, the way he said it. It was as if he was talking more about himself than Kiba."

"Has he gone through something similar in the past?" Sona questioned curiously.

"I don't know." Rias said almost ashamed. "Even though I'm his Master I know next to nothing about him before I reincarnated him. And I'm so sick of that fact."

"Is that what you think?" Sona placed a hand on Rias' shoulder. "Rias, you said Shirou left with Kiba right?"

"That's right." Rias answered.

"Then tell me, who do you think is the best person to keep Kiba alive against Excalibur?"

Rias thought for a second. "That would be…Shirou."

Sona smiled. "Exactly, from what I've heard and seen Shirou always gives it his all when others need his help. Even if you don't know much about him, you know enough to know that'll they be back safe, right?"

Rias turned her head to look at her surprised. Sona looked at the floor with a smile. "And as for Kiba, I believe it's true his feelings may have gotten the best of him. At least for the moment, it seems. I have no doubt he will always be a member of your house. Kiba will come back to you Rias, I know it."

Rias stared at her for a moment in wonder, before smiling. Sona has always supported her, and vice-versa. "Of course, thank you Sona."

"And when it comes to Shirou." Sona continued with a smile. "Something else you already know is that he's not someone that can be tamed, he'll always be a servant in name only."

Rias chuckled. "You're right, I gave up on taming him a long time ago."

Just then, two small magic circles appeared before them. From them stood two small holograms that showed Akeno and Tsubaki. "Excuse us for the intrusion." Akeno greeted.

"Thank you both for all of your hard work today." Rias said to them.

"It's getting pretty late, isn't it?" Sona asked. "What's going on?"

Tsubaki answered. "The situation is quite grave."

This caught the attention of both High-Class Devils.

* * *

That night, in front of the Old Abandon Church. The team that was formed to hunt down the Excaliburs had gather and were standing outside, all ready for action.

Shirou nodded. "Okay, since everyone's here we can begin."

RING!

They were all caught off guard when a ring was suddenly heard.

"It's mine." Shirou took out his phone annoyed. "Sheesh, somebody better be dying for me to get a call at a time like this." He muttered irritated before answering. "Who is it?"

{It's me.}

Shirou recognized the voice. It was the man that summoned him a short while ago simply to have a drink. Afterwards he became one of Shirou's regulars, he would summon him often to partake in a verity of different things that were meant for quiet enjoyment and relaxation. Shirou never complained when this man summoned him, but right now wasn't the best time.

"Aza? Why are you calling?" Shirou questioned, using the name the man told Shirou to call him by.

{I was feeling in the mood for some company and wanted to know if you could come over.}

Shirou sighed and face-palmed. "Look, man, if it were any overtime I probably would have, trust me. But I'm in the middle of something right now. And no offense, I say this in the nicest possible way but…I have something much more important going on than hanging out with you."

{…Well, I guess it can't be helped. I have to call you some other than.}

"Yeah, I'll be more available by than." And with that, Shirou hung up. He turned to the others and put his phone away. "All right. I'm good."

"Who was that?" Kiba asked.

Shirou shrugged. "Just a regular."

* * *

Meanwhile, the man in question was at the harbor by the ocean. He currently had fishing gear beside him and was prepared for some night fishing. While he was holding his cell-phone that he just used to call Shirou. He looked at the screen of his phone with amusement.

"Oh well. I did call last minute." At that moment a person appeared next to Aza. "Hey."

The person turned out to be a young handsome man about Shirou's age. He had Sliver-hair like Shirou but it was a different shade, it was a darker Silver that reflected off the moon like, it was more similar to Grayfia's hair. The young man also had eyes as blue as the Azure sky. He was wearing a rough-looking outfit that seemed to suit him somehow and had a confident look on his has that also resembled Shirou's.

This young man shared so many traits with Shirou it was almost scary.

"Have you came to keep sad, lonely old me company?" Aza asked before tossing the lure line into the water and began fishing.

The young man chuckled. "That's funny." He told him. "I didn't realize you ever got lonely."

Aza just smiled and looked out into the night sky.

* * *

After working out the plan to track down Freed they'd spilt into two teams that would spilt those search areas. Irina and Xenovia made up one team that would search the West while the whole rest would search the East. If one group found anything they were to call and inform the other. Although, truthfully, Shirou was more confident his group would find something first because he asked Ren to try and sense the presence of the enemy's location. Ren could only determine it was coming from somewhere on the East side of town.

But they didn't share this with the others.

As they continued searching for the past half-hour they soon came across a place that was familiar to the Devils of the Gremory Peerage. It was the same run-down old building that they fought the Stray Devil Viser in. And it looked even worse than before.

"This might be the right place." Kiba guessed.

Shirou frowned. "Yeah, but this is the place we fought that Stray."

"You guys fought a Stray Devil here?" Saito asked.

Shirou nodded. "Yeah, haven't you?"

Saito scowled. "I wish."

Ruruko smiled uncomforted. "The thing is, our group doesn't do missions like that. Including myself, most of our members specialize in Technique or Support abilities, so we aren't really built for a combat mission." She explained. "In fact, Besides President Sona, Saito-Senpai is already the strongest member of our Peerage now and even than the President would have trouble winning if he used his Sacred Gear to Delete her magic."

"While on the flip side, your group is almost completely made up of people who use either brute force or destructive power." Saito added irked. "It was built for fighting, that's why only you get missions involving battle. And all we do is, day to day work or cleaning up the mess."

"It's not like that isn't important too." Ruruko reminded him.

Saito just groaned.

Shirou just narrowed his eyes. _"I doubt he'd be so eager to fight Stray Devils if he actually saw what they look like."_ He thought, remembering the hideous monstrosity that was Viser and cringed.

Their conversation was cut short when they walked up to the building but stopped when they all felt a sudden chill go through their bodies. It was killing intent, and it was aimed at them. Not just that, but both Shirou and Kiba recognized the killing intent and knew what it meant.

"Look up!" Saito shouted.

When all of them looked up, there was a White-haired boy priest standing atop the stone archway that surrounded the outside of the building falling down with a long sword. With a crazed look on his face, he drove down towards them preparing to strike.

"YAHOOOOO!" Freed shout in murderous glee.

KACHIN!

Kiba took his Demonic-Sword out quickly and blocked Freed's slash. The insane Priest then jumped and flipped backwards, before landing on the building. Kiba went after him and they locked Swords. "I forget to thank you earlier." The psychopath said.

Kiba grit his teeth as he tried to push back against Freed. "For what?!"

"Probably this!" Shirou shouted as he appeared suddenly behind Freed and kicked out in an arch-kick that smashed into Freed's side and sent him crashing into a wall.

Shirou then landed next to Kiba and smirked. "By the way, thanks for earlier."

Freed broke out of the wall and looked furious. "For what?!"

"Exactly." Was all that Shirou said.

Kiba then made a large amount of Demon-Swords appear at his feet and picked one up.

"Chi! So it's not only the "Holy Eraser", I see! Having multiple Demonic-Swords. Are you the possessor of "Sword Birth", perhaps? Wow. You are guilty of having a rare Sacred Gear, you know!"

Freed seemed like he was enjoying it, which was the opposite of what he was saying.

"But. Normal Demonic Swords can't put up a challenge against…" Freed lifted up his Sword and flared up its Holy aura. "…My Excalibur-chan."

"Shirou, you guys need help?" Ren asked, still on the ground with the rest.

Shirou kept his eyes on Freed. "No need, we'll handle this one. Ruruko, Koneko watch the surroundings for in case he has allies around. Ren, stay on guard in case he tries to escape. Saito cover me." He commanded, while drawing Dyrnwyn.

[Right.] Koneko and Ruruko said simultaneously.

"Heh, got it." Ren replied, with a smile.

"Tch, don't go giving me orders." Saito muttered annoyed, though he planned on doing it.

"Kuhahaha, two for the price of one huh~?" Freed taunted. "I can't wait to feed you to my Excalibur-chan!"

Shirou ignored him and turned to Kiba. "Get ready, we're about to face the guy whose number 2 on your shit-list. Get it right this time, got it?"

Kiba kept his gaze on Freed's Excalibur and gripped his Sword. "Oh, I plan to."

Shirou summoned his Boosted Gear and placed his hand on Kiba's shoulder. "First you'll some extra fuel in your engine."

 **[BOOST!]**

 **[TRANSFER!]**

Having transferred power to his Blonde-haired comrade, Shirou could tell by the look on his face that Kiba had every intention of putting the power-up to good use. Kiba is already fast on his feet, but with his speed doubled thanks to the Boost, and with his focus sharper than last time, he was fairly certain he could outpace Freed.

"Ah Hell, some for me too."

 **[BOOST!]**

 **[EXPLOSION!]**

And with that Shirou Boosted his own abilities and sustained them. In the beginning, both transferred power and Explosion would last one minute, but after his training, the time limit has now been increased to three minutes.

Both of them flared up their auras like Freed was, Shirou's was Red and Kiba's was Black.

This display only seemed to amuse Freed. "So are finally done getting ready for your night?"

"Actually yes." Shirou said with a similar expression. "And now we're going to take you to a place I like to call….. SPEED HELL!"

KATCHIN!

 **Play OST Fairy Tail - White Dragon And Shadow Dragon - Extended**

The two Devils vanished from where they were standing and speed blitzed Freed, surprised by the sudden strike he reacted on instinct and parried them blocking their attack. They then begin a speedy-quick exchange of strikes on the stone arch. Freed strikes Shirou again, and again, the Delinquent blocks his attempts. Kiba uses the opportunity to attack the Exorcist while he's distracted, but Freed manages to block his blade with the dull side of his Sword. The three Swordsman jump off of the wall onto nearby buildings' roofs. They all engage in rapid strikes, running across the roof and then jumping up into the air, all-the-while exchanging attacks.

CLASH! KATCHIN! SWISH! SLASH! WUSH!

Yet as they're fighting, The Knight and Pawn duo sprint out at speeds that started to surpass Freed's, nominally surprising him. The reason being that because Shirou had already faced Freed numerous times he could easily read his movements while not allowing him to do the same. And Kiba, now that he had calmed down he had more control over his Technique, his refined and graceful Swordsmanship was finally showing itself superior to Freed's wild Swordsmanship.

CLASH! KATCHIN! SWISH! SLASH! CRACK! BREAK!

But the Sword wasn't an Excalibur for nothing. After flaring up more of its aura, his speed further increased. Suddenly, the two Devils disappear from sight, and Freed's eyes widen in surprise at their increased speed. He is barely able to block both of their attacks, and the three continue with the High-Speed Hell. With the increased speed, the two of them keep up their pressure on Freed. However, even after Kiba goes on the attack, Freed is able to block it, to his shock. Freed then goes on the attack himself own and destroys Kiba's Sword.

However, Freed realizes this was his intention all along when the blonde Knight vanishes and the Silver-haired Devil appears with an overhead slice. Which Freed dodges. The Stray Priest was started to get frustrated at being stuck on the defensive considering his two opponents far outclassed him Technically. Even though he couldn't sense any notable disadvantage in speed among them. Kiba appeared with a new Demonic-Sword and this time they exchanged in rapid strikes while speeding around the entire location.

CLASH! SLASH! SWISH! KATCHIN! SHING!

The four on the ground had moved from where they were standing when this all started, from their perspective it just looked like a Golden flash of light was colliding with a red flash of light and a Black stream on darkness, and all they could hear was the constant sounds of steel clashing against steel. It was all to fast from any normal eye to keep up with but they were trying anyway.

"Can you see them?" Ren asked.

"Barely, I can see their bodies if I try hard enough, but their Swords are just a transparent blur." Saito answered.

Ren nodded. "The same for me, I can see why he calls it Speed Hell."

 _[We can't see a thing.]_ The two first-years behind them thought.

While Ren and Saito were at a high enough level to see their speed to an extent, Koneko and Ruruko were much more inexperienced and weren't able to see anything, they could only hear the sound of steel clashing with steel.

KATCHIN! CLASH!

As the three of them continued their rapid strikes and clashing they soon made their way back to the top of the building's roof. And while on the surface their battle seemed to be a stalemate, in truth the balance was about to tip and one look would tell you which why the was going to go at this point.

"…huff…huff." Freed was breathing heavily and his face was dripping with sweat.

"I was waiting for this." Shirou whispered satisfied.

This was their true objective. Shave away Freed's stamina. All of the high-speed fighting and the pressure they created by staying on the offensive was for this. While they were all moving at the same speed, Shirou and Kiba obtained this speed through training and understand perfectly the limits of how long they could move at top speed. But Freed was different, Freed only gained this speed through a weapon he recently acquired and had never been pushed to his limit before, thus he had no idea how much stress moving at top speed for this long could do to his condition.

Another problem was regardless of how much he didn't act like it, Freed was a human. The biggest weakness that humans have is they are much more fragile than the other races. They have less endurance, case in point if a human and a Devil competed to see how could outlast the other at the same level of difficulty, the human would tire out first 100% of the time. Knowing that fact, they made Freed go at top speed as long as it took to reduce him to this state.

Those on the ground saw this as well.

"I see, so this was their plan." Ren noted.

"They kept pouring on the pressure and made him rev up his engine at Max until he ran out of gas." Saito summarized. "Humans aren't built for moving like that and that psycho couldn't slow down otherwise they'd of shredded him to pieces. They made it so there was no other way this could have ended.

Ren smirked. "Of course, this is how Technique-Types fight. Guess Kiba really did follow Shirou's advice.

Back on the roof.

"…huff…huff." Freed whizzed out.

"What's wrong? Tired so soon?" Kiba asked, unmerciful.

"That's the price for going to Speed Hell unprepared." Shirou taunted.

"Don't…Don't fuck with me!" Freed shouted, still exhausted yet gripping his Sword harder. "This isn't enough to stop me…I can still keep going for hours if I have to!"

"Unfortunately we don't plan to wait for hours." Shirou said before he vanished from sight once again and appeared on Freed's right. "We're ending it this minute."

Shirou smashed a body blow into Freed with his left fist. Ever since he first gained Dyrnwyn he always swung it with his right hand and used one-handed Sword attacks and maneuvers. This always left his left arm free and gave him a chance to punch his opponents, like right now. Freed cough out some blood after taking Shirou's body blow and hunched over.

"Now Kiba!"

Responding to Shirou's signal Kiba rushes in and takes advantage of Freed's momentary immobilization. Once he is right in front of him, Kiba grips his Sword with both hands and slashes out a strong horizontal slash that cuts Freed in the center of his body and creates a large gash going from his stomach to his shoulder.

"AAAUUGGHHH!" Freed screamed out in pain as blood sprayed from his large wound and he flew. Free-falling from the roof of the building and unto the ground with a thud. He was defeated.

 **Music Off**

"It's over." Saito turned to Ren. "How much time was that?"

"About 52 seconds." Ren answered.

"What?" Ruruko asked shocked, along with Koneko. "But that's less than a minute, how could so little time have passed?"

"That's what high-speed battling is like." Ren answered unfazed. "While it seemed like this fight could take a while, fights like these actually end pretty fast. One miss-step and it's over."

"Speed fighting is different from power struggles." Saito added. "Instead of being an all-out brawl where you keep going until you drop, these fights are one-shot kills where landing one blow is all you need to win."

Neither Ren or Saito have actually seen high-speed battles before and yet, they've both seen enough fights to know the difference between one and the other. Ruruko hasn't been in real fights before in general and Koneko has only been in more simplistic fights so all this was new to them.

Back on the roof, Shirou sheathed his Sword and looked down at Freed. "That takes care of that. Now all that's left is to destroy the Sword."

Kiba nodded. "Right."

Freed coughed out some blood and struggled to moved. "Fuck…Shirou is one thing but…When the hell did the other one get this good?"

"Hmm, how interesting." Suddenly a new voice spoke out. Everyone present looked in the direction the voice was coming from, walking out from the shadows of the inside of the build, there was an old man wearing priest clothes standing close to Freed. "Sword Birth huh? It's a Sacred Gear that can have an infinite number of powers depending on the possessor. And Dyrnwyn, a lost Holy-Sword that can only be wielded by the Red Dragon Emperor."

"…Is it you old-man Balba?"

Everyone became shocked at Freed's word.

"…Balba Galilei!"

Kiba glared at the old man with eyes full of hatred.

"I certainly am."

The old man admitted it normally.

"Freed. What are you doing?"

"…Old man, hurry up and give me more of that pain-killer stuff!" Freed exclaimed, impatient.

Balba sighed and reached into his pocket. "You get cut up far too often." He throws a syringe to Freed.

Freed grabs to syringe and injects it into his neck with a look of madness. After the intention Freed's wound started to close until it was completely gone and Freed stood up as if he was never cut. Everyone was shocked by what they were witnessing. With a primal grin, he lifts up his Excalibur again. "Kuhahaha! That's the good stuff!"

"They have healing objects?" Kiba gasped.

"Its almost like Asia's." Shirou noticed.

"That's not exactly correct." Balba corrected after hearing them. "While on the surface it seems like healing, that was actually a high-speed body regeneration. The human body is capable of healing any injuries given time, the contents of the syringe are able to speed up the process and quickly regenerate troubles injuries at a moments notice as well as dulling the nerves to block out the pain."

"They have something like that?" Ruruko said surprised.

"Hold on, that sounds like a drug, which means there are some bad side-effects." Saito reasoned.

"You're right. Alas, the human body has a limit on how much it can heal itself in one lifetime, so with every use the person in question shortens their life-span." Balba said, not upset by this at all. "And to make things worse Freed has been using them on several occasions as of late. I doubt you have much time left."

"Heh, who cares about that boring stuff." Freed brushed off. "It's better to live short and sweet anyway, as long as I can cut and slice right now I don't care about later."

 _"I couldn't disagree more."_ Shirou thought, annoyed by Freed's way of thinking. _"Still though, that does explain how he's always in good shape whenever we fight despite the fact that I always body him a few days before."_

"Now! Time for round two~" Freed pointed his blade at the two Devils on the roof. "Hey old man, how do I bring out more power from the Sword?"

"Hmph. You still can't use the Holy-Sword perfectly yet. Use the "Element" I gave you more wisely. I'm researching because of that. Gather the Holy element that is running throughout your body to the blade of the Holy-Sword. With that, you should be able to cut more effectively."

"Yeah, yeah!" Freed's Holy-Sword had started to gather auras and started to glow! "Like this! Horyah!"

"Guess it's not over yet." Ren said putting his guard back up.

"Over course not. Freed exclaimed with an expression of excitement. "My Excalibur is "Excalibur Rapidly"! In terms of velocity, it won't lose to anyone!"

"Expect us apparently." Shirou reminded him.

"Don't forget me." Saito added as he pointed his Sacred Gear at Freed.

 **[DELETE!]**

Suddenly the bright aura covering Freed's Sword went dim. Freed looked confused. "What the hell!"

"I couldn't do much before because the aura was covering your whole body, so it was too much to suppress since I didn't have a clear target. But if it's just the Sword I can easily lock onto it and power it down." Saito explained, feeling confident. "The target was so big you were practically asking me to aim for it."

"Shit! Dragon-type Sacred Gear is it!? The most troublesome type. The initial ability isn't that much of a threat. But when it grows, the destructible power surpasses other Sacred Gears on a whole different level. Scary. Man, it is such a nuisance!" Freed complained.

He didn't have time to ponder on it though as just when he finished talking, a large rock was thrown towards him by Koneko. But Freed didn't seem worried and simply thrust the blade of Excalibur at it, thus shattering it to pieces. "Please, you think a rock can stop me~"

While he said that mockingly, Freed fail to notice that appearing from behind the boulder waiting for this chance was Ruruko. She dashed out at the speed of a Knight and right in front of Freed she kicked with enough sharpness to slash him, unfortunately, Freed was faster and dodged by stepping back. Although the front of his uniform was cut. She jumped back to join Koneko.

Shirou and Saito each looked at the member of the other group with interest.

 _"She threw that boulder as if it was a pebble."_ Saito thought. _"Tsukiharu was right, she does have power."_

 _"She's almost as fast as Kiba's base speed even without promoting."_ Shirou thought. _"And her kick was as sharp as a knife, Saito wasn't kidding about her."_

 _"Looks like the Underclassmen are better than you'd think."_ Ren thought.

"Geez, you guys are so annoying. I Can't Take It! Freed shouted. "I will be escaping now! The next time we meet will be the time of our ultimate battle!"

Freed said that but…

"I won't let you escape!"

There was someone who went past the others at a very fast speed.

KACHIN!

There was a blade clashing with Freed's Holy-Sword that was igniting sparks. It was Xenovia.

"Yahoo! Shirou-kun."

Irina was there as well.

"You're late." Shirou replied.

 **[RESET!]**

Shirou noticed his three-minute long power-up was now gone. Though that didn't really concern him at the moment.

"Freed Zelzan. Balba Galilei. Rebels. I will cut you both down in the name of God!" Xenovia declared.

"Ha! Don't say the name of the hateful God that I hate! You bitch!" Freed roared outraged.

Freed and Xenovia exchanged Swords, but he took something out. It was a ball of light. Shirou recognized it as Freed used it to escape every time they fought.

"Old-man Balba! We are escaping! We are going to report to the boss, Kokabiel!"

"There's no other way."

"See ya! The alliance of Church and Devils!" Freed threw down the ball of light on the ground.

FLASH.

As always there was a bright flash of light that covered a wide range. The light covered the whole area and blinded the eyes of everyone. By the time they regained their sight, Freed and Balba were gone.

"Are you kidding me, this again?" Shirou groaned.

"We are going after them, Irina."

"Okay!"

Xenovia and Irina nodded at each other and sprinted off into the woods.

"I'm going after them too!" Kiba decided, sprinting off the chase after the Exorcists. "I won't let you escape Balba Galilei!"

Shirou jumped down from the roof and stood next to the other who stayed. They all loosened their battle stances and took a breath.

"What now?" Ren asked. "Do we go after them?"

Before Shirou could answer, he felt the presence of someone behind me.

"When I thought that the flow of power was irregular…"

"This is certainly troublesome."

They all turned around after hearing two familiar voices.

"Shirou. What's the meaning of this?"

"Explain. Saito"

It was Rias and Sona, along with their Queens. Ruruko and Koneko paled at the sight of their respective Masters while Shirou and Saito just groaned.

"Oh—"

"—Shit."

Shirou started and Saito finished.

* * *

They were now inside the building. Rias and Akeno were in front of Shirou, Ren, and Koneko, while Sona and Tsubaki stood in front of Saito and Ruruko. The guys all stood while the First-Years were forced to do a seiza in front of them.

"…Destroying Excalibur. You two…" Rias didn't have a pleasant face and she put her hand on her forehead as she sat on top of a table with her legs crossed and Akeno standing next to her. Shirou explained the situation to her and how Ren decided to have them all work towards this objective together, along with how the First-Years joined in. "I know we said we wouldn't intervene, but I would at least like to know what's going on. Therefore, Akeno and Tsubaki will be keeping an eye on them."

"Saito. Ruruko." Sona said, starting the others after a moment of silence. She looked at them with a cold expression. "You two were doing something like this behind me? You truly are troublesome children."

"I know and I'm sorry President…" Ruruko said regretfully.

"I'm not sorry." Saito said not regretful in the least.

Sona narrowed her eyes annoyed but then turned to Ren. "And you, I've heard about you from Rias. That you're a Sacred Gear wielder."

"I am." Ren replied, not fazed at all by this situation.

"Why did you involve yourself in this matter?"

"Sona, even if I'm not a Devil or rather because I'm not a Devil, I had every reason to involve myself." Ren answered seriously. "This involved facing a Rogue Fallen Angel Leader and those crazy enough to work with him, how could I while knowing I have the power to fight, just sit back and do nothing?"

Sona processed his words and sighed. "I suppose we all have different viewpoints on these things. But even if I think it's wrong, you aren't my servant so I can't say anything." The bespectacled girl than turned back to her servants. "You two on the other hand."

Ruruko flinched and Saito clicked his tongue.

"So Yuuto went after that person called Balba?" Rias asked Shirou.

"Yeah. Pretty sure he's with Irina and Xenovia right now." Shirou answered not worried. "Well, the way he is now, he should be okay."

"We can only hope so." Rias then turned to her White-haired Rook. "Koneko."

"…Yes."

"Why did you do this?"

Koneko closed her eyes. "…I don't want Yuuto-Senpai to go away…" Koneko told her true feelings. Rias looked confused rather than angry when she heard that.

"…Saying this when it has already happened won't change anything I guess. But what you two did could have affected the world of Devils. You understand that, right?" Rias asked seriously.

"…Yes."

"And you Ruruko, why did you do this" Sona questioned.

"I…I didn't want Saito-Senpai to do this alone." Ruruko answered nervously.

"The correct thing to do would have been to inform me immediately." The Sitri heir scolded.

"I know, but…" Ruruko hesitated.

"But doing nothing would have just made things worse." Shirou added.

"What do you mean?" Rias asked curiously.

"Before he left that Freed guy said he would be reporting to his boss and next time we meet it would be at the ultimate battle." Saito informed them.

"That can only mean they're moving into the final stage of their plan, whatever it is." Ren finished.

"I see, this is all happening so fast." Rias said worriedly. "We need to prepare ourselves."

"But that doesn't change the fact that you caused a great deal of trouble." Sona reminded them. "You'll be punished for this."

"This is stupid." Saito muttered before he turned around.

"And where do you think you're going?" Sona questioned.

"Obviously I'm leaving."

"Well think again, you will also be receiving punishment for all this."

Saito turned to look at her and had irritated expression. "Let me get this out of the way first. Quit talking to me like that?"

Sona raised a brow. "What was that?"

"I said stop talking to me like I'm a child." Saito clarified. "And stop saying things like you'll punish me because I'm not putting up with that."

"I'm your master Saito, I have a duty for punishing you when you've done something wrong." Sona argued.

"Well, I don't think what I did as wrong."

"Regardless of what you think, that doesn't change what you've done."

".….Sona, do you remember what I told you when I first joined you?" Saito questioned.

Sona seemed confused. "What are you talking about?"

"When I first joined your Peerage I told you, I agreed that I would work for you for the time being, but if there was ever something I felt like I had to do no matter what, I would prioritize that over any order you gave. And you accepted that condition." Saito reminded her, which silenced Sona. "Don't forget, I may belong to your household, but I have my own goals that motivate me. And they mean much more to me than your own desires."

Saito kept his gaze on Sona, looking her straight in the eye to show he was completely serious. Sona didn't avert her gaze either and had the same expression. The tension in the room was extremely thick. It ended however when Sona closed her eyes and sighed.

"Honestly, you truly are troublesome. If I had known this would happen I wouldn't have agreed." Sona said, with a hand over her forehead. "But fine, I will refrain from punishing you this time. However, please be more mindful in the future."

Saito shrugged. "No promises."

Sona turned to Rias. "It seems we both have untameable Pawns."

Rias smiled amused. "You think so."

Sona now looked at Ruruko. "Ruruko, you, however, will still be punished."

"I understand, President." Ruruko said, more accepting of her punishment.

Rias turned to her servants. "Koneko, the same goes for you."

"…Okay." Koneko said, also with acceptance.

"I'd say the same to you Shirou, but you'd probably just laugh and brush me off."

"I can assure, that is exactly what would happen." Shirou replied.

"Anyway, what should we do now?" Ren asked, walking up to Shirou and Saito.

"We could always go after Kiba." Saito suggested. "He probably caught up to them by now."

"But that could be rushing into a trap." Shirou pointed out. "I say we wait since they plan on coming to us, we'll wait before we make our move."

The three of them tried putting their heads together to figure out a plan. Unfortunately, they were interrupted when they heard a strange sound.

SLAP!

"Huh?"

"What the dick?"

The two Pawns turned their heads to see what made the sound behind them. Ren just looked up to see. They all saw it, but they didn't understand at all.

SLAP!

What they saw was Ruruko on her hands and knees, getting her butt spanked by Sona. However, Sona's hand had her family's magic circle on it, infusing it with her Demonic-Power. "Looks like you need to reflect on your behavior." The Student Council President said before spanking her First-Year Pawn some more.

"Augh, I'm sorry President." Ruruko said through her pain.

"Not good enough. 2000 spankings."

SLAP! SLAP!

The guys didn't know what was more awkward, the fact that they were doing this with them still in the room or the fact that none of the girls seemed to mind that they were still in the room.

"Uh, is…Is that…" Shirou asked awkwardly.

Akeno nodded with her usual smile. "That's right, this is their punishment." She confirmed. "Usually it's only 1000, but since you two aren't getting punished they get your share."

"I see…" Saito answered, very uncomfortable.

"Now Koneko. Show me your bottom." Rias smiled with her hand covered with a crimson-colored aura.

Koneko got on her hands and knees as well and prepared for her punishment.

SLAP!

Thus Rias began spanking her Rook.

SLAP! SLAP!

Seeing both of them receiving this punishment only made the guys feel even more uncomfortable. At this point, they were wondering if this was also a form of punishment.

"Um, we're just gonna…" Ren pointed to the door.

SLAP!

"W-We're just, uh…" Saito added.

SLAP!

"…Bye." Shirou simplified.

And with that, the three of them walked out of the room and outside the building. In truth, they just wanted whatever excuse they could think of to get away from this awkwardness of witnessing this.

Akeno placed a hand on her cheek once they were gone. "Ara, Ara, they seemed pretty uncomfortable."

"I wonder why?" Tsubaki said, unaware.

SLAP!

* * *

Right now the guys were standing outside the building, waiting for the punishment to be over. They just stood in silence, unable to get rid of the feeling of awkwardness.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Okay, I'm just going to come out and say it." Shirou broke the ice. "That was the most awkward moment of my life."

"Right?" Ren agreed. "I mean what was with them, did they want us to leave or to stay or, what?"

"I heard Sona has a draconian personality and loves punishing her servants, but this isn't what I thought they meant." Saito admitted. "All I can say is those two are nuts."

Shirou nodded. "I second that."

After having their conversation Akeno appeared outside as well and addressed them. "Okay boys, everything's all wrapped up."

"So the punishments are done?" Ren asked.

"That's right, it was very entertaining." Akeno said, showing hints of her inner Sadist. "After the 1000th spank, they moved on to bare-bottom spanking, their butts were almost the same color as the Chief's hair.

.

.

.

"…Oookay." Shirou turned to the other two. "I had more stuff I wanted to talk about. But after that, I think I wanna call it night."

"Uh yeah. Might be for the best." Saito immediately agreed.

"And we never speak of this again." Ren finished.

And with that decision, they all walked off in different directions. Hoping to just put this whole ordeal behind them.

* * *

"You know you don't have to came with me."

"It's a precaution."

After everything was settled back at the abandoned building, everyone parted-ways for the night. As Shirou was walking home, Rias decided to tag along with him and now they were both walking to the Tsukiharu residence. The two of them were currently having a conversation while they walked.

"A precaution for what?" Shirou asked.

"I have to make sure you don't go off on your own again." Rias answered.

"What? I already said I would wait until the enemies showed up again before doing something."

"Even so, I can't take any chances."

"Oh what, you don't trust the words of Shirou-Sama?" Shirou asked, pretending to be offended.

Rias smiled. "It's not that I don't trust your words, I just don't trust you to not find some loophole in your words." She corrected.

Shirou blinked and then shrugged. "I am good at that, aren't I?" He almost sounded like he was bragging.

"In any case, we should at least let Asia and Mika know what's going on." Rias reasoned. "With the situation as large as it became, they have a right to know."

"I know that. I was actually planning on telling them when I got back." Shirou said seriously.

After a few more steps they arrived at his house and opened the front door.

"I'm back!" Shirou announced as he and Rias walked inside. As they closed the door behind them, they heard footsteps.

It was revealed to be Asia. "Welcome home. Shirou-san." She greeted cheerfully. "You must be exhausted after working so late." Asia wasn't aware of what he was doing so she assumed it was Devil work-related. "Oh and the Chief-san is with you as well, then I'll get started on dinner. Any requests?"

.

.

.

Shirou didn't answer, he was too surprised at the moment. Even though Asia was talking to him as if everything was normal, it certainly wasn't. The reason for that being Asia's state of dress, or in this case 'lack thereof'. Asia was wearing a white-apron…..… And that was it, she literally had nothing else on. Not a single piece of clothing. Asia was completely exposed on the other side. And Shirou honestly had no idea how to respond to this.

Shirou pinched the bridge of his nose. "I can't decide whether I should ask 'What?' or 'Why?', so I'll just ask. MIKA?" He shouted that last part.

"Incredibly Cute little sister here!" Mika announced appearing cheerfully from around the corner.

"What is _that_?" He pointed at Asia. "Explain."

"Well surprisingly enough, this wasn't my idea. I mean it's great but it's wasn't mine." Mika explained. "You see, a few hours ago she came home while I was reading Manga and asked where the aprons were. I told her and the next thing I know; Naked Apron Asia. She's been doing housework dressed like that the whole time."

Shirou blinked. "But the one thing you've neglected to mention is why she's doing that in the first place!"

"…Kiryuu-san from our class told me… That you have to wear nothing under the apron when you want to make a guy feel good after a tough day in Japan… Of course, I'm not wearing my underwear… It feels cold… Aauu…but I have to get used to Japanese culture…" Asia said it with a straight face.

Shirou groaned. "Why do you always believe everything you hear?"

"I'm not complaining about that." Mika commented. "It makes things more fun."

"Impressive, it's simple yet quite effective." Rias complimented with a clap. "Asia you can become a real Devil. You really are a lecherous girl."

"Eh!? I don't want to become a lecherous Devil!"

Rias smirked and Asia replied with a troubled face and teary eyes.

"A little late to be saying that." Mika informed her. "I mean you're already dressed like a lecherous girl." She pointed out.

"Asia, take that off immediately." Shirou commanded.

"Eh? Um, okay." Asia replied with her face red, she started to untie her apron so she could take it off.

"No!" Shirou shouted stopping her. "I meant get changed not…Wait, why are you embarrassed about being Naked but perfectly fine with wearing a Naked Apron?"

"This does seem strange now that you mention it." Mika agreed also curious.

"I've decided!" Rias announced, getting everyone's attention. "I'm going to wear one too, just like Asia's."

"You what?" Shirou asked, not expecting that.

"Oho, that's even better." Mika said, loving all of this.

"I think I know where the aprons are." Rias said, walking forward. "I'll be right back, just wait."

Rias then stopped when she was next to Asia and smiled.

"Oh and by the way." Rias leaned in to whisper in her ear. "You were very close to out-doing me here." She then walked off to the kitchen. "You should be very proud of yourself."

Shirou scratched his head. "I swear, she getting hornier by the day." He complained.

"Come on now." Mika patted his shoulder. "Naked-Apron's are one of the most beloved guilty pleasures, you should enjoy it."

"Can you not right now?" Shirou replied, not in the mood.

"Shirou-san." Asia looked at him upset. "So then, you don't like what I'm wearing?"

Shirou sighed. "Why do you assume you have to wear stuff like that?" He asked walking up to her. "And why do you only care about if my day was rough. You had a much harder time just the other day."

 **Play OST DRAMAtical Murder - Hikari**

Asia frowned and knew he was referring to the meeting with Irina and Xenovia back at the clubroom before.

"Listen, rough days are just apart of my lifestyle, but look I don't have a scratch on me. You shouldn't worry all the time and instead learn to relax more often" He pointed out. "Like I told you before we're a family."

Asia gasped when she remembered those words.

* * *

 **Flashback...**

 _"Listen." Shirou wrapped his arms around both girl's shoulders, holding them comfortingly against his chest. It was hard to find a word to describe the shade of red that colored both of their faces. "Everything's going to work out. Things look rough now, but I give you my word: We're gonna win this. We're stronger than anything that flaming man-whore can throw at us. We're going into this together and we're coming out of it together. And we always will, because we're a family."_

 _""We're" a family?" Asia wondered._

 _"Yes, we're a family." Shirou confirmed. "And that means you too, I don't think there's anyone else I'd rather have at my side right now."_

 _For a moment, Asia beamed at Shirou silently, a mix of joy, embarrassment, and relief pumping through her heart._

* * *

 **Flashback End...**

"And that still hasn't changed." Shirou smiled as he patted her head. "The only difference is who I'm fighting. Or in this case; who I'm beating."

Mika smiled. "Oh Broliam Shakespear, you always have a way with words." She complimented in her usual Mika fashion.

Asia hugged Shirou silently. "…Shirou-san. I don't regret turning into a Devil. I also haven't forgotten my faith in God. But I have gained something more important than my feelings to God."

"Something important?"

"Shirou-san. Mika-san. The Chief-san. Everyone in the club. School friends. Everyone is important to me. I don't want to lose them. I want to be with them forever. I don't want to be alone anymore."

Asia said it in his arms with a small trembling voice.

"You know, I'm starting to wonder why you still worry about that." Shirou looked at her, serious. "I'll say it until it sinks in, you're not alone anymore. And you'll never be alone again. If you don't to lose what's important you, then just stay close to me and everything will work out." He then smirked confidently. "I always come through no matter what I'm up against, that's what makes me Shirou-Sama."

Hearing his words put Asia's mind at ease and wiped away her worries. "…I'm glad I came to this country. I met with Shirou-san. Shirou-san….… Shirou-san…" Asia put her face in my chest with a sweet voice.

 **Music Off**

Mika watched them with a warm smile on her face. _"How sweet, it warms the heart…"_ Her smile then turned into a mischievous grin. _"Now for a bit of merry mischief."_ Mika held out her hand and pointed to Asia. Then after adding some magic-power in her hand, she activated a spell.

And at the moment without her noticing, Asia's apron instantly untied itself.

Asia then released her hug on Shirou. "…Shirou-san, I…" Asia paused, for when she moved back, her untied apron fell to the floor and her Naked form was now completely revealed in all its glory.

"I love magic." Mika couldn't stop smiling.

"KYAA!?" Asia cried out, her face completely blushed as she quickly covered her breasts and her womanhood and crouched down to her knees to try and preserve her modesty, even though that was pretty much useless at this point. She also confused as to why this happened considering she was sure she tied her apron correctly. But Shirou knew why.

"Mika!" Shirou scolded as if it was completely obvious that she was the cause.

"Oh come on." Mika shrugged. "You know me well enough to know I couldn't just not do that. Seriously when am I ever going to get a chance like this again?"

Shirou clicked his tongue. "I ask you, what else could happen next?" He asked himself, not expecting an answer.

Unfortunately, he got one.

"Shirou! I have also worn it!" He heard Rias' voice, and so he looked. Rias came out also wearing nothing but an apron. Though her one was a pink apron with white laces and a red heart print where her breasts were. And because her cup size was much bigger than Asia's, her 'assets' were more noticeable. "What do you think?"

Shirou face-palmed. "I think I should stop tempting fate."

"And I think I'm the luckiest NEET in the world right now." Mika added.

Rias approached and then noticed Asia. "Hmm, Asia why is your apron off?"

"U-Um….I…I." Asia stuttered embarrassed.

"It's because she decided to make dinner without the apron." Mika said for her.

"Eh?" Asia looked up surprised.

Rias blinked. "Oh, why would she do that?"

Mika smiled and nodded. "Obviously, because she knew she couldn't beat you in sex appeal if you both wore a Naked-Apron, so she decided to increase her's by going without the apron."

 _"You cannot be serious."_ Shirou thought, with half-lidded eyes.

"I'm surprised Asia, you're more of a lecherous Devil than I expected, but it's obvious that I'm far more appealing than you." Rias said confidently. "Not even Shirou can stop himself from desiring me."

"Says who?" Shirou argued, ignored.

"That's not true!" Asia argued determined, so much so that she stood up, not caring that she was completely exposed. "I won't lose no matter what! I know I can be more appealing to Shirou-san!"

"And she's lost it." Shirou commented, again ignored.

"Is that so?" Rias asked, not worried and immediately removed her own apron, revealing her own Naked body without a bit of shame and with a confident expression. "Well can you still say that after were on an equal playing field?"

"T-That's right, even if I'm not as pretty or gifted as you are, I still won't give up!" Asia said unwaveringly.

"I give up." Shirou muttered, still being ignored.

"Then let's put that to the test." Rias walked off to the kitchen. "Let's get dinner started, we'll decide things that way."

"Right." Asia followed her.

"Wait, it's incorrect to cook with an apron—" Shirou started to called out, but then just stopped and sighed, fed up. "…She used to be a nun."

"Yes and Rias is a princess." Mika added, standing beside him. "But now, they're both love-struck members of your Harem. Funny how things turn out in life, don't you think?"

"What was that all about?" Shirou asked, irritated. "The aprons were bad enough and you just made them go step further."

"I just wanted to how far they would go. And I don't regret it." Mika said satisfied. "Just imagine, in our kitchen, there's currently a Shokugeki going on where the females are Naked _before_ someone tastes the food."

"Look I know this is a thing for you." Shirou said, not bothering to play along. "But I'm not in the mood right now. I've had a long day."

"Yeah, fighting Excalibur."

Shirou paused, surprised. Mika suddenly had both a serious tone and expression and the joking atmosphere in the room had faded at that moment. What surprised him, even more, was his sister's choice of words. Rather than saying he was _hunting_ Excalibur, she said _fighting_ Excalibur.

"How did you—"

"It wasn't hard to figure out." Mika cut him off, know what her brother was going to ask. "I already knew you were looking for Excalibur with Kiba, and a little while ago I sensed a lot of strong Demonic Power gathered in one place, which I'm pretty sure was Rias, Sona, their Queens, and you along with a few others, and the fact that Rias came home with you made it more convincing." She listed. "Though what truly convinced me was before sensing the Demonic Power I felt a strong sense of danger, the same one I felt when those Exorcists came to the clubroom. Need I say more?"

Shirou sighed. "All right fine, you got me."

"Then could you explain what happened out there?"

"Ren decided to lend his help and so he brought in Saito, plus Koneko and the new Student Council girl joined in themselves."

"And let me guess, Ren told them he was a Sacred Gear user without revealing his real secret." Mika guessed.

"That's right." Shirou confirmed. "Once we found the guy we basically concerned the enemy, but they made a run for it and Kiba and the Exorcists went after them." Shirou continued. "But Rias and Sona picked that time to show up and stopped the rest of us from going."

"And so here you are now."

"Yeah." Shirou took out his cellphone. "Now all I can do wait for Kiba to send me the word that he found them."

Mika noticed the concerned look on Shirou's face. "Can I ask you something? How come you're so involved with Kiba? I can understand that you sympathize with him after Rias told you his past but—"

"It's more than that." Shirou cut her off. "The truth is… I told him the truth, about me… Our past."

"…Oh…" Mika responded quietly.

"I felt I had to, after all, it was only right since I knew his and he didn't know my." Shirou reasoned. "Besides, after hearing it from his own mouth, it struck close to home."

"You don't have to explain why I pretty much agree with you." Mika assured him. "Besides, I figured you would do something like this after Rias told us about what happened, you've always been that kind of person."

"It's more than that, I knew that everyone had their own reasons for fighting and living. But I never expected there would be someone with the same reason as me." Shirou admitted. "When he talked about revenge and how he lost everything, I was surprised because that was the face I made after we lost it all. I could tell immediately, he wanted his revenge as much as I wanted mine."

"But you didn't want to see him lose himself to that desire which is what would've happened if he went after it alone." Mika deduced. "So you told him your story to let him know you were the same and so he would let you do this with him, that why you could snap him out of his funk."

"I couldn't just do nothing, if he kept doing it the way he was, he'd of been killed without accomplishing a thing." Shirou clenched his fist. "And I couldn't let that happen."

Mika went up to him and held his hand, then gave him a warm smile. "There's one big difference between you and Kiba. It's that Kiba has someone who is both strong and reliable to watch his back, you. And just like you said, you always come through no matter what your up against." She comforted him. "And know that no matter does come, your precious sister will be right there at your side, you know I'll always be there for you."

"Mika…" Shirou spoke before he returned her smile. "Yeah, I've always known that."

"Good, now." Mika's expression changed to an excited one. "Let's head to the kitchen, right now both of your waifu's are making dinner in the Nude and I don't want to miss another second of it!"

"You've always gotta ruin it, don't you." Shirou commented as she dragged into the kitchen.

* * *

Later that night, both Rias and Shirou woke up because of an enormous pressure they had never felt before. Both of them went outside. Asia and Mika also went after feeling something. When they got out of the house, there was someone standing before them….

"So it's you."

Shirou glared, the one standing before them was someone who had a sickening and evoking smirk, the White-haired Priest, Freed.

"Well, well, well would you lookie what we have here, so many damn Devils." Freed mockingly addressed them. He then noticed Asia in the back. "Well, if it isn't Asia-tan." His voice made her step back in fear. "The traitor Nun who gave her soul to the Devil. How much do you love your new life as Devil scum?"

"You're one talk, considering you're both a traitor and scum yourself." Shirou reminded him. "Now quit wasting time and tell whoever's out there to come out!"

"Huh? I don't know what you mean~?" Freed feigned ignorance.

"Don't play dumb you jackass, or do you seriously think I can't see that huge power right next to you?" Shirou said impatiently.

"It's as he says, now answer." Rias agreed.

"Hyahahaha, well aren't you smart." Freed pointed upwards. "Fine then, meet my boss!"

On his words a barrier covered the sky turning the sky into a purple/black kaleidoscope color. And out from thin air appeared Freed's boss. Kokabiel. He had the appearance of a young man but had pale skin, in fact, it was completely gray. He also had deep red eyes and pointy ears, he even had black hair that was somewhat puffy going downwards. Kokabiel also had spiky teeth, like a beast. He was also wearing black clothes along with a large robe with detailed accessories. What really got their attention was his wings, he had exactly Ten Black-feathered wings spread out.

Shirou could feel an extremely strong pressure coming from him, it was on a whole other level than what he ever sensed from any previous Fallen Angel he ever faced. But his or was what had him on edge, it wasn't as big as Sirzechs' or Grayfia's but it certainly wasn't weak by any means. However it didn't feel Demonic like those's two, it felt almost like the aura Excalibur had but with something more to it. Kokabiel's aura felt dirty, corrupted, something that was once clear and then became blackened.

But that made sense after this was an Angel that fell from grace. He smirked after seeing Rias. "This is our first time meeting, daughter of the house of Gremory. That Crimson hair is beautiful. It reminds me of your brother that I hate enough to make me want to vomit."

Rias returned his smirk with her own. "Nice to meet you, one of the leaders of the Fallen-Angels, Kokabiel. And my name is Rias Gremory. I will also add one more thing. We and the house of Gremory are a being who is closest to the Maou, and also the furthest from it. If you are here to discuss politics with me, then it's no use."

Mika couldn't help but feel pressured by being in his presence. _"So that's Kokabiel. I didn't think I'd be this affected just by being close enough to see him. This could be bad, I don't know how well we can do against a Cadre-Fallen Angel right now."_ She thought worried.

Mika knew that while she was trying to hide it, Rias was also feeling the pressure. And Asia wasn't even trying to hide it as she couldn't stop trembling.

At that moment Kokabiel reached into his robe and took something out. They looked and tried to make out what Kokabiel was carrying. Upon close enough inspection they could see it was…a person, he was carrying a person.

"This is a gift."

The Fallen-Angel then threw the person he was carrying at them.

"Gah."

Shirou reacted immediately and went to catch it.

The one who dropped into his arms was…Irina Shidou. She was covered in blood. She was breathing heavily! Her whole body was covered in wounds. Her battle uniform was all cut up like she was sliced by a blade.

"Irina? What happened?"

Even though Shirou called out to her, she reacted painfully and didn't respond. It looked bad.

"She came into my base. So I gave her a welcome. Well, I couldn't catch the other two." Kokabiel said it with a laugh.

Shirou put her down and clenched his fists.

 **[BOOST!]**

CLASH!

At that moment Shirou summoned his Boosted Gear, vanished from where he was standing and appeared right above Kokabiel with Dyrnwyn already drawn ready to slash Kokabiel. Kokabiel, however, summoned a large Spear of Light and blocked his strike resulting in the two of them being locking in a struggle.

"The Boosted Gear." Kokabiel marveled amused. "And the lost Holy Sword Dyrnwyn, to think I'd see both. Heh, and it seems the Red Dragon Emperor is as reckless as I've heard."

"I see, you're the fabled Kokabiel I've been hearing about these past few days." Shirou responded n the same tone. "I gotta say I didn't expect much from you consider your terrible taste in grunts, but I might actually have fun beating you for a change."

"You're as arrogant as they came." Kokabiel put more power in his Spear. "You should know who you're dealing with, boy. I'm far beyond you."

"Don't call me boy." Shirou put more power into his blade as to not get overwhelmed. And then, after seeing he was distracted Shirou raised his other fist and punched Kokabiel across the face, right on his cheek. "Call me, Shirou-Sama."

Once that was done, Shirou moved back and landed back on the ground with the others. He finished with a smirk.

Mika smiled. _"I should have known, he's not affected by the pressure at all."_ She felt their chances had just gone up.

Kokabiel didn't look phased. "Not a bad trick, but I've had tick bites worse than that."

"Oh, then do tick bites leave a bruise." Shirou countered, referring to the bruise on the spot Shirou punched him.

Kokabiel responded with a glare. "How dare you."

"Stop it!" Rias shouted, getting their attention. "You still haven't said what you're doing in my territory. So answer my question." She demanded.

While Rias was confronting Kokabiel, Mika gestured Asia to heal Irina. There was a green light coming out of Asia's body, which covered Irina. Irina's expression started to soften and she started to breathe gently.

Kobabiel let go of his Spear of Light causing it to vanish and decided to answer. "I wouldn't do something as stupid as talking with a Maou. Well, if I rape and kill his little sister, then Sirzechs' anger will be pointed towards me. That won't be bad."

Rias and Shirou glared at Kokabiel with disdainful eyes.

"Bastard." Shirou muttered.

"…So what is your motive for contacting me?"

Kokabiel answered Rias' question with joy.

"I will be rampaging in this town using your base, Kuoh Academy, as the starting point. Then Sirzechs will also appear, right?"

Rias' eye widened with shock upon hearing that.

"If you do something like that, the War between God, Fallen-Angels and Devils will begin again you know?"

"That's what I'm wishing for. I thought that Michael would start a War if I steal the Excalibur... But what he sent were grunt Exorcists and two Holy-Sword wielders. It's boring. I'm really bored indeed! That's why I'm going to rampage at Sirzech's sister's base. See? It looks fun, right?"

"…You battle-freak."

Rias said it with hatred. But Kokabiel laughed with joy.

"Yeah. That's it! I was bored and bored after the war between the three sides! Azazel and Shemhaza weren't that keen on the next war. They then started to collect something boring like Sacred Gear and started to do some weird research. Something useless like that won't be of any use to us! …Well, it's a different story if it's a "Boosted Gear" like the one the brat over there has… But it's not something you can find so easily." Kokabiel then looked at Shirou.

"I thought I told you, its Shirou-Sama!" Shirou then looked at him irritated. "Still I should have known. Someone with a rabid dog like Freed under his lead could only be a bigger rabid dog."

"I prefer to think of myself as a warmonger. Either way, I'm going to be starting a battle involving the Holy-Swords, Rias Gremory. For starting a war! A school where both little sisters of Sirzech's and Leviathan's go to. It must be filled with Demonic-Powers so that I can enjoy the chaos! It's also the best place to release the real power of Excaliburs! It's a good place for the battlefield." Kokabiel exclaimed, his words and voice were filled with madness.

"Hyahahaha! Isn't my boss the best? His craziness is the best. So I'm also eager to do it. He even gives me treats like this."

What Freed took out was an Excalibur. He had one of them in each hand. He also had two of them on his hips.

"The one on the right is "Excalibur Rapidly". The one on the left is "Excalibur Nightmare". The one on my hip is "Excalibur Transparent". I also received "Excalibur Mimic" from the girl over there! I also feel like getting "Excalibur Destruction" that the other girl has. Hyaa! Am I the first person in the World to be in possession of this many Excaliburs? I also received an element from the geezer Balba that allows me to wield Holy-Swords. Right now I'm in a hyper mode that allows me to wield all of them, you know? I'm invincible! I'm wonderful! I'm the strongest! Hyahahahahahahahaha!"

Freed laughed as if he found it really funny.

"Big talk for a two-time loser." Shirou reminded him, which halted Freed's laughter. "I guess you're only the strongest when you aren't fighting me, 'cause you're always total bitch whenever we fight." Freed gave him a death glare, but Shirou was just glad he shut him up.

"Balba's Holy-Sword research. It's the real deal if it shows this much result. To tell the truth, it seemed suspicious when he joined my plan." Kokabiel continued.

"What are you planning to do with the Excaliburs!?"

Rias asked him. Kokabiel moved his ten black wings and moved his body in the direction of the school.

"Hahaha! Let's have a War! Little Sister of Sirzech Lucifer, Rias Gremory!"

FLASH!

In a flash, the barrier was gone and the sky returned to normal. Both Freed and Kokabiel had also vanished.

"They're headed for our school." Rias said, looking at the direction they flew off in.

"Rias, gather the others and head for the school." Shirou said seriously. "Tell them what's going on. I'll meet you there."

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Rias asked.

"Don't worry, It'll just take a second." Shirou and Mika walked back inside. "I just need to get something."

* * *

Once Shirou was inside his room he reached down under his bed and brought out a box. He opened it to reveal a set of clothes.

This was Shirou's new combat suit to replace the one that was burned up by Raiser. This new suit consisted of a jet-black leather jacket that reached down to the back of his knees, it had no sleeves and the front of the jacket was open. He was wearing a shirt beneath he jacket that was the same color, the shirt was a long-sleeved shirt, the sleeves reached all the way to his wrists, it was fabric and it's seemed like it was easy to move around in, it had a V-shaped caller by the neck, and it seemed to be tight enough that it hugged his skin and displayed his muscular figure beneath, attached to the caller of the shirt was a hood that was big enough to cover his hair and forehead. On his hands were dark gloves that had metal braces on the knuckles. His pants were also black leather jeans that were slim and without any sag, and they had the same chains around the pockets. His shoes were spiked black boots that reached up the bottom of his knee caps and had surps on the back heels.

This new combat suit was also enhanced by magic. The suit was now bulletproof, fire, proof, resistant to heat and cold and was much more durable. It also had the ability to regenerate if damaged just by adding magic power.

In a flash, Shirou changed into his combat suit and had a look of determination.

Mika then entered his room wearing the same outfit she wore during the Rating Game.

"Are you ready now?" Mika asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah." Shirou nodded and the two of them spread their Devils wings and flew out the window to head to the School. "Let's end this."

* * *

 **To start things off, I'm glad I got this done, I wanted to finish this sooner, like much sooner, I can't stress this enough how much sooner I wanted to finish this chapter. Moving to at the start of this chapter we had Ddraig tell Shirou that being a Dragon-user draws the opposite sex because it does and it gives him a reason to accept the Harem, speaking of which Mika was thrilled the idea, classic Mika. And she insisted on being the main because let's face it she as big a candidate as Rias or Asia. And Ddraig as mentioned the White Dragon Emperor coming, so Shirou has something to look forward to now.**

 **What came after was Shirou's meeting with Azazel, and before you ask, yes the reason Shirou felt he seemed familiar is because they've met before. They have met in the past, but Shirou doesn't know that yet, the reason for that as when as a full explanation will come later, just know it's very important. Right now they are just casual acquaintances who hang out from time to time.**

 **And for the meeting of Irina and Xenovia, I decided to keep it brief mainly because I didn't feel there was much else I could do. Though it did give them an idea of what those two were about. And Shirou can be at ease knowing his first kiss wasn't with a boy.**

 **On a more serious topic. Once the meeting in the club room started even though Xenovia tried throwing her weight around by giving them orders and talking down to the others, it was pretty clear that it wouldn't have any effect on Shirou, for the simple fact that she was weaker than him and him hearing someone weaker than him, no more like anyone at all trying to order him around was a joke at best.**

 **Then when it came to them putting down Asia and preaching about their self-righteous beliefs he clearly wasn't having any of that shit, he told them straight to their faces that the higher-ups were just a bunch of pig-headed narcissists who think the world revolves around them. And he didn't have a problem with telling them he doesn't believe in God. Not God himself, but the God they preach about. Nor about all the atrocities of the past that stemmed from people's distorted and warped beliefs.**

 **As for both Shirou and Mika's reasonings on why they don't believe, well let me admit I didn't think of all that myself. Truth is I was having trouble thinking what they should say so I looked up a bunch of discussion videos and forums and basically took what I figured would fit with their characters. I figured it was enough to get the point across. I'm just not could at religious stuff.**

 **And then came the bombshell you were all waiting for. The revelation on Shirou and Mika's parents. For anyone who read Devil Reborn I took the concept of the Slash Empress from there and used it in my story because personally I really liked the idea and I decided to make Shirou's mother that person in my story as well. As for their father, well I figured I should give them a father who was just as strong, plus one that had the same talents as Mila, which would explain why she is so talented at Magic. And this explains why both of them are prodigy's that get stronger so fast. But just so you know, this isn't everything about their parents. There's one more revelation about them that is yet to be revealed.**

 **And for the two of them not being fazed by what they learned about their parents, well I think that given how their characters have been shown throughout the story that would be the response they would give. Being more understanding instead of all the Angst that all the other versions Shirou's had in their stories. No offense to Shirou Fujimura or anything.**

 **Also as for the whole Asia slapping Xenovia, I wanted to add that because I felt it would be good for her character and thought should deserve a moment like that. Honestly, though I think it was right for her to do something like that because let's face it, even though she's always shy and timid it's refreshing in a way to see her to something like that. At least, that's what I think.**

 **Now onto the fight. With the way Shirou is now it should have been obvious that he would outclass Irina and Xenovia, they're both untrained and inexperienced not to mention their fighting styles are too limited to one category, once Shirou basically figured out how they fight he could just beat them whenever he chose to, Shirou is the kind of person who grows while he fights, it's what makes he stronger and more capable against any opponent. Rather than just rushing in and tearing them apart. Plus this was a good way to introduce his new Sword attack. I really like attacks of that nature and as you can imagine the Rapid Slash won't stop at 10, it'll increase the stronger he becomes.**

 **The next part was a part I was really invested in, Ren revealing himself to the others, sort of. From the very start, I was planning for Ren to possess a Sacred Gear, and if you look back I hinted that it was a fire-type, though it was a really small hint so I don't blame you for not seeing it. I wanted Ren to be involved in this fight without revealing who he was yet, but rest assured he'll reveal himself as a Youkai by the end of this Arc. I also wanted Saito in this fight as well because he's a strong person to have as back up. Koneko and Ruruko are too, to a lesser extent though.**

 **Later when they joined up with Xenovia and Irina, I decided to have Shirou tell Kiba what he was doing wrong and help him realize it. Kiba is using his wrath the wrong way and so Shirou told him the right to use his wrath because we all know how much Shirou uses his own wrath and how many times it one him to fight. Not to mention he reminded Kiba of how he fights, honestly in my opinion if Kiba fought the Excalibur wielders more calmly his chances would have been better.**

 **Looking back to the call from Azazel when we saw Vali appear for just a moment. I kept describing him to have similarities to Shirou because he does. When you stop and think about it they have a lot in common, personality-wise, strength-wise and how they look and act. But that's what I was going for. In the future, you'll see they have a lot more similarities that will be revealed.**

 **Now for the Freed fight. I've always wanted to do a fight like that, one with pure High-Speed and Technique. The high-speed battle was something I wanted to try out and I thought it would be a good chance for Kiba to redeem himself after his string of losses, plus it would be a fight where he would focus on Technique rather than going berserk. Not to mention it could focus Freed's weakness, he's a human using a weapon he's not physically used to. It really wouldn't surprise me if Freed had a weakness like that considering he's careless and tends to overlook important details like that. So I played on it.**

 **I also decided to add an explanation as to why Freed always shows up fresh to a fight despite Shirou tearing him apart so often. Balba couldn't care less about a person's safety and Freed is a mad man so it's not hard to imagine they would use something that makes him fresh while draining his life-span. Though since Freed won't be around much long it doesn't really matter all that much.**

 **Next was the scene with Sona and Saito, as you can see like Shirou, Saito doesn't take shit from anyone even if they are hi King. Saito felt he was doing what he felt was right so he wasn't going to just let Sona punish him or treat him like a child, that just his nature. And the idea of the guys getting uncomfortable once the other two got punished was just something I wanted to add for comedic reasons.**

 **Once they got home and started that Ecchi scene with Rias and Asia, Asia was being her naive self while Rias wanted to join in and one up her in any way she could, the usual stuff. I decided to have another moment of Mika being Mika, after all, it's what she does best and it always helps brighten up the mood. I also added a tender moment between Shirou and Asia. Shirou is the kind of guy who's good at finding the right words to say, unlike Issei how can barely put what he's feeling into words.**

 **Though after that Shirou and Mika one of their serious moments. The moments between those two are always more special compared to the others because they always feel like, they can just be how they really are around each other and can tell each other anything. Their bond is one of trust, pure trust they don't share with anyone else and that's why I always like writing them.**

 **And the final scene of this chapter was them finally meeting Kokabiel. Obviously, since Shirou has been established to be fearless he won't be pressured by seeing Kokabiel, especially after feeling the full weight of power from someone like Sirzechs. And he truly believes he can beat him, for good reasons. Next chapter will be the long-awaited fight between everyone against Kokabiel and his grunts. It's going to be a good one.**

 **Plus I decided to give Shirou a new combat suit because I felt this was the perfect time for one. I decided to make it look a little different while keeping it similar to the original one and I gave it enhancements so he could keep using it. Plus Mika is wearing what she wore back during the Rating Game. I figured it was a good idea.**

 **These outfits will be their main outfits during important fights and events since I didn't want them always going into battle in a Student Uniform like the others seem to. Not to mention the enhanced uniforms are something that the others got much later in the canon expect they still looked like their Student Uniforms, so I decided to do that now to save time and just did it for the two of them since these are actually clothes for fighting.**

 **I'm glad I was able to post this and hopefully, the next chapter won't take so long. But try not to be so impatient for it, the reason I made this chapter so long was because I hoped it would satisfy you all for a while so I could work on other stuff in the meantime. I haven't done that in a while either, I also need to think up how the fighting for the next chapter will be handled.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed it, if you want more leave a review, if you liked the story click the follow/favorite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	21. Sacred Song And Sword Of Betrayer

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This chapter will be the start of the battle against Kokabiel group and while this chapter it's as long as I had hoped I'm still glad I got it done. And before we began I decided to do something I was thinking about for a while in this story and I figured now was a good time. Hope you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Sacred Song And Sword Of Betrayer**

* * *

Starting from high over Kuoh Academy, a large imperfectly formed blue and purple transparent dome began to take form. Putting the school completely inside of it. The light of the dome shined in the night and if it was able to be seen by the eyes of ordinary humans, it would have attracted the attention of almost everyone in the town.

"We have covered the school with a large barrier. With this, unless something disastrous happens, there will be no damage outside." Sona told Rias and the club. The two Peerages, along with Ren were standing outside the barrier at the front of the school's entrance. Expect the Kiba and the Tsukiharu siblings were still absent. Sona and her servants were standing on top of a large magic-circle with the Sitri family's crest on it that acted like platforms. Holding out their hands with magic-circles on them towards the barrier, as they kept the dome activated.

"This is to keep it to the minimum. To tell you the truth, if Kokabiel were to fight seriously, not only this academy, but the whole region would be annihilated. Adding to that, he has already gotten ready for that. My servant have seen him releasing his power at the school grounds. My servants and I will continue to place the barrier to reduce the damages. I want to minimise the damages as much as possible… It's hard to prevent having our school getting damaged. But it looks like we have to since it's the leader of the Fallen-Angels who is moving." Sona made a sharp eye and looked in the direction of the school with eyes filled with hatred. She was probably directing it to Kokabiel.

"Thank you, Sona." Rias said gratefully. "We will do the rest from here."

"Rias. Our enemy is a monster with strength above ours. It's still not too late. We should get your Big Brother…"

Rias shook her head.

"You also didn't call your Big Sister."

"My Sister is… Your Brother loves you. Sirzechs-sama will definitely move. So…"

"I have already informed Sirzechs-sama." Akeno said as she approached the two of them.

"Akeno!" Rias criticised.

But Akeno had an angry expression. "Rias. I know that you don't want to cause problems for Sirzechs-sama. It happened in your territory. In your base. And it happened after the family problem. But it's a different story if the leader of the enemy appears. It is a problem that surpasses the level that you can solve. Let's borrow the strength of a Maou."

Rias took a deep breath a nodded. "Fine." She said in defeat.

"Thank you for understanding the situation, Chief. Sirzechs-sama's reinforcement will be here in one hour."

"One hour…" Sona processed this information. "I understand. In that time, we, the Student Council, will vow to continue to place the barriers in the name of Sitri."

"There's no need for that."

Everyone turned to the direction of a familiar voice. Who they saw was Shirou in his new combat suit and Mika standing beside him.

"Shirou-san." Asia addressed his arrival.

"That outfit." Rias noticed.

"After the old one got burned away, I got this new one. And unlike before it's built in with magic that amps up its defence." Shirou explained. "It's like I'm wearing a suit of armor."

"I see, that's good to hear." Rias said, inwardly relieved.

"Yeah, I'm just wearing this to go with the theme." Mika admitted, referring to her cosplay. "It's like my signature outfit for important events now."

"Moving on." Sona interrupted. "I assume you heard our conversation."

"Yeah, But to be honest I'm not planning to wait an hour." Shirou said confident. "We don't need to hold out until some Devil King shows up, I'll just waste Kokabiel myself."

"Shirou, he's a Cadre-Class Fallen Angel." Rias reminded him.

"But he's not _me_." Shirou reminded her. "Just who the hell do you think I am?"

"You're the goddamn Red Dragon Fucking Emperor." Mika said amusingly repeating something he said previously.

"You're damn right." Shirou said walking towards the school, with Mika following.

The two High-Class Devils just watched them go.

"He sure is confident in his abilities." Sona noted.

"True, but don't forget he's really reliable in situations like this." Rias pointed out.

Sona smiled. "I think we're all aware of that by now."

As they were about to enter through the barrier, Shirou noticed Saito was also channelling magic into the barrier.

"Must suck having to stay on the sidelines, huh?" Shirou asked.

Saito rolled his eyes. "Yeah, not like you'd know anything about that."

"Don't be so upset." Ren said, joining their conversation. "Technically you've got the easier job."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Saito asked sarcastically. "The biggest fight in town and I get stuck with the crappy job of powering up the barrier, and I'm pretty sure I'm stronger than some of the guys on your group."

"I'll probably never have to do that, but I bet it must be pretty bad." Shirou said, being blunt.

Saito sighed. "Seriously though, this takes up a lot more magic than you'd think. It'd be hell to have to keep this up for a whole hour."

"Don't worry about that, it won't take an hour or even half of one." Shirou said, holding up two fingers. "This'll all be over in twenty minutes."

"Twenty minutes?" Ren asked, unsure. "Are you sure?"

"I'm always sure!" Shirou immediately replied.

"Here's hoping." Saito then looked around and noticing the absence of a certain person. "No Kiba."

"He'll be here." Shirou said, believing it was obvious. "It's just a matter of when."

And with that their conversation ended and those part of the group that were going to fight went through the barrier. Once they were on the other side, the barrier closed down behind them. Upon entering the dome, they noticed that almost everything within was a different shade of red. The group made their way to the front doors of the main building, planning to go through it to get to where Balba was said to have been sighted.

Once they were inside the building Shirou promoted to Queen and as they kept walking Rias made an odd request.

"Shirou, I'm sorry for having to ask this but." Rias hesitated. "I want you to be on support for this fight."

Shirou hardly responded to her. "Not funny, Rias."

"I'm being serious!" Rias responded. "I need you to use your abilities to transfer your power to the rest of us to increase our strength."

"And I need you to think for once." Shirou shot back. "Do you honestly think it's worth keeping me out of the fight just to power you guys up? If there's a problem that can't be solved without Boosting, then I just Boost my own strength and take care of it."

"But we can't just leave all the fighting to you." Rias argued. "Even if we'll lose some of our strength by leaving you out of the fight, it'll still be more practical if we can strength the group as a whole."

"And are they just going to stand there at let this happen?" Shirou pointed out. "Don't forget this a fight to the death, our enemies aren't just going to sit around and let us power up and even if they do." Shirou narrowed his eyes. "You guys aren't strong enough to beat Kokabiel, even if I power you up to the limit."

Rias was taken aback by his choice of words. "And you're saying you are?"

"I'd rather try it myself then leave it to you." Shirou answered.

The other just stood their, not knowing what to say or even if they should say anything. They all felt that both of them had fair points in their respective outlooks but they couldn't really say whose option was the better choice. However, Mika who obvious didn't share that thought process got between them and decided to throw in her opinion on the matter.

"If you two wouldn't mind listening for a moment." Mika spoke up. "Why not try this; Broku will stay in the fight at the start of things, but if it gets to a point were someone needs to power up we'll have the others cover him in case the enemy tries to interrupt. Once the only enemy left is Kokabiel we'll leave him to Brostein since he has the best chance against him one-on-one."

The King and Pawn considered the pros and cons of this suggestion and decided it was better than just going back and fourth and both just nodded signifying they agreed.

"Ara, Ara, you're surprisingly good at coming up with an alternative." Akeno noted, sightly impressed.

"Those two may be the Ace and Leader of this group, but I'm the Strategist." Mika said proud. "Making a plan of action that they both agree on, even begrudging is my job."

"Now that that's settled we should probably get going." Ren reminded them. "We're still on the clock you know."

"…He's right." Koneko added.

"Then let me just say this before we begin." Rias began to walk in front of the group. "My servants. We will be on the offensive. We will go inside the barrier and draw Kokabiel's attention. Unlike the battle against Phenex, this is a battle of life and death! Even so, I will not forgive you if you die! We will survive and we will continue to attend this school!"

[Yes!]

Half of them replied to her with energetic voices.

"But I don't actually attend this school so that line doesn't work in this case." Mika pointed out.

"…Okay, most of us will continue to attend this school!" Rias tried again.

This time Shirou spoke up.

"That still doesn't work. I don't even like this so I can't get motivated to fight just for that. I think I might just ditch tomorrow anyways."

"And I might join him." Ren added.

Rias just sighed in defeat, knowing the feeling was gone. "…Let's just go."

* * *

The battle will take place in the middle of the school field, where a bizarre phenomenon was taking place. There were four Swords that were releasing extreme lights while floating. those Swords were on the ends of a strange looking magic-circle that was spread out one the whole school field. Surrounding the Swords were giant spiralling golden beams of light, all which seemed to be swirling together. In some way it looked almost beautiful, expect for the fact that it was certain death for Devils. In the middle of the magic-circle was none other than Balba Galilei, who appeared to be controlling it with his hands raised and a positive look on his face.

Most of the members of the Gremory Peerage became speechless after upon seeing what was in front of them, even Ren who could still feel the pressure despite not being a Devil. Shirou however, just looked prepared.

"So. What the hell is that…?" Shirou asked what everyone was thinking.

"I'm going to make the four Excaliburs into one." Balba said it as if he found it amusing.

"Balba." There was a voice from up in the sky. When all of the club members looked up, there was Kokabiel who had the moon as a background. He was sitting on a tall throne pedestal making him look like a final boss character. He sat up in the sky while looking down on them. He was even crossing his legs confidently. "How much longer will it take for the Excaliburs to merge?"

"It won't even take five minutes, Kokabiel." Balba answered with confidence.

"Is that so. I will leave it to you." Kokabiel moved his eyes from Balba to Rias with an evil grin. "Is Sirzechs coming? Or is it Serafall?"

Rias gave him a look of defiance. "In the places of my Brother and Leviathan-sama, we…"

Kokabiel only looked amused them and interrupted Rias by snapping his fingers. Upon doing so a massive Spear of Light as large as his body formed in his hand. The group stood ready when he attacked, but to their surprise the Fallen Angel threw the Spear off to the side.

 _SWISH! BANNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!_

The gym building was suddenly engulfed by a huge explosion, knocking everyone expect Shirou, Rias and Akeno off their feet with its cloud of dust and shockwave.

When the dust cleared, they were stunned and terrified to see the large Spear of Light standing where the gym building once stood. The building itself was gone. There wasn't even a trace of it. It was destroyed completely by the power of Kokabiel.

Kokabiel groaned. "Boring. Well that's okay. It will be entertaining."

Shirou clenched his fists after seeing that display of power. If he compared that Spear of Light with that of the Fallen-Angels he fought before, it was like comparing a toothpick and a fishing rod. Yet for some reason he wasn't all that concerned regardless. After all, it wasn't like it would even hit him either way, or more specifically he wouldn't let himself be hit by it.

 **[Are you scared partner?]**

Shirou looked at his left hand, as the back of his palmed lighted up once Ddraig started to talk to him.

Shirou scoffed. _"Ddraig, did you seriously just ask me that?"_

 **[I just wanted to be sure. But even you should understand he's on a different level. He is so strong that his name has been recorded in the bible since ancient times. He is the one who survived the battle against God and the past Devil Kings.]**

 _"Yeah, but he's a worthy opponent for me."_ Shirou kept his cool. _"Looks like I'll finally have a chance to go all-out again."_

 **[Heh, I see. So you truly have no intention on stalling until the Maou arrives. Well that's fine too. So him your power.]**

"Now. I will have you all fight my pet that I brought from hell." Kokabiel clicked his fingers.

Then from the depths of darkness there was a sound of the ground rumbling as it came closer to them. The thing that appeared was something none of them were expecting. It was ten meters tall. It had a large body. It had four legs, and each leg was thick. Also the claws that grew from each leg looked so sharp they cut through trees. The eyes that were glittering from the darkness were red. From its mouth, what it had were dangerous looking fangs. The fangs were close to each other, and from the gaps there were white breaths pouring out. The animal which resembled it the most was a…dog. A dog from hell, with three heads.

ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!

Its howl was so loud it felt like it shook the ground! The three heads howled at the same time.

"…Cerberus!" Rias said it with a voice filled with disgust. "It's a famous creature that has the nickname of Guard-dog of Hell. It lives in the gate to Hell, no to the Underworld. But to bring it to the humans' world!"

"I feel like were getting our mythologies mixed-up." Shirou muttered under his breath.

"Shirou, including your power up, how many times can you transfer your powers?" Rias questioned.

"How many?" Shirou thought about it for a moment. "Probably twelve or thirteen times if I was Boosting to the maximum, fourteen if I push it."

"I see, then we won't have to worry about you running out of stamina anytime soon." Rias said relieved.

"Just know I'm only Transferring power to you once." Shirou informed her. "If you can't beat it even with double your power than I'll do it myself."

Rias smirked. "If I can't even take down a wild creature like that." She spread her wings out from her back and flew up into the sky. "I don't have the right to call myself the heir to the House of Gremory!"

Akeno followed her and magically transformed her clothing into her Shrine-Priestess outfit. Together with Rias, the two of them flew in the air and attacked Cerberus.

ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!

A sudden familiar howl caught everyone's attention as before they realized it another Cerberus appeared. In fact three more appeared, bringing the total up to four.

"It can't be." Akeno said in utter shock. "Why is there more than one."

Kokabiel chuckled while looking down on them from his throne. "Mass-producing them wasn't as hard as you might think, so I decided to bring up the numbers a bit."

"You cur." Rias cursed.

One of the Cerberus jumped after making a growl. One of the heads opened up its jaw wide and breathed out fire. A strong torrent of flames was let loose.

 _ **"PROMETHEUS CANNON!"**_

FLAAAAAAAAAAAME!

Acting quickly Ren jumped in front of the incoming flames and decided to fight fire with fire. Activating his Sacred Gear; Pyro Drake he unleashed a strong burst of fire himself. However unlike the torrent that came from Cerberus, Ren's attack was more of a smaller blast of fire, similar to a flamethrower. But that also made it more concentrated and harnessed more power.

Both fire attacks clashed result in a clash of inferno, but Ren's attack almost effortless broke past Cerberus' and made contact with the three head beast. The impact of the attack blasted him away to the further ends of the sports field with a strong crash.

"Who cares how many there are." Ren said satisfied. "All that changes is the number of targets we've got."

The others looked on impressed, however Kokabiel just looked amused. "Ha, this is entertaining."

Shirou then appeared in front of the floored and burnt Cerberus and summoned his Boosted Gear. "Don't show off too much Ren. You'll just get out staged by me."

 **[BOOST!]**

The gauntlet started to flash. It hadn't even reached the limit. But what was this strange phenomenon. Shirou was feeling doubtful about it when Ddraig talked to him and explained.

 **[It's telling you that it can store the Boosted power up without having to use it. Therefore you can fight without triggering a Reset and still be able to Transfer power it to Rias Gremory or Akeno Himejima. However, in exchange your own power won't rise should you choose to do this.]**

 _"What? Since when was that an option? I mean that's convenient and useful but why am I only able to do that now?"_

The normal effect for the Boosted Gear is that once Shirou used Boost, his own power would be doubled and after hitting someone or getting hit by someone his power would return to normal and if he wanted to Boost more than once he needed to wait ten seconds until he could Boost again. If he wanted to sustain his extra power or Transfer to someone or something else, he couldn't fight until he was done Boosting.

However, now Ddraig is telling him that is no longer the case.

 **[It means that both you and the Sacred Gear are evolving day by day. It has made possible what you desired. As you can't tell the fight while needing to Transfer power to your comrades without having to Reset, you wanted to fight while storing power for later. It has now let you do that.]**

After hearing the explanation from the Dragon inside his arm, Shirou started to think about this. "So it manifests my desires." He said out loud thinking of the possibilities.

Though as he took the time to think, the fallen Cerberus got back up and pounced at him.

"Shirou-san! look out!" Asia cried out with worry.

Shirou easily saw it coming and brought out Dyrnwyn. "First things first."

SLASH!

The instant Cerberus got close enough was the moment he was finished. Shirou unleashed three slash that hack off one of the heads of the and Cerberus' two front legs, this attack sent them upwards into the sky with blood and smoke gushing out, and the Cerberus started to vaporise. It was the effect of the Holy-Sword.

"I never thought I'd see a Devil wield a Holy-Sword so skilfully." Kokabiel commented. "Although, I suppose this is a special case."

"Shirou, I told you to focus on increasing our power for now." Rias said upset.

"Oh don't worry about." Shirou replied.

 **[BOOST!]**

"If the abilities evolve based on my desires, than maybe this'll work." Shirou aimed his gauntlet at Rias and Akeno and gather the power he Boosted into his hand, they both appeared as two small, baseball sized, emerald orbs of light. "It worked."

"What are those?" Akeno asked, confused at what she was looking at.

"Your support." Shirou smirked as he cocked back his fist and readied himself. "Transfer; Shot!"

 **[TRANSFER!]**

Shirou fired both the orbs at Rias and Akeno. Once the power hit the two of them an enormous amount of power went to Rias and Akeno, surrounding their bodies with a green flaming aura. They instantly gained an enormous amount of Demonic-Power. Both of them were shocked at the amount of power that was overflowing from them. And more than that—

[AAH~!] Both Rias and Akeno let out a sexual cry of pleasure after receive the power up and having it overflowing through them. It was like they had reach a climax.

"Oh for fuck sake." Shirou face-palmed, knowing he should have seen that coming.

"Wow, since when could you do that?" Mika asked, curious and impressed.

"I'll explain later." Shirou replied, lifting his gauntlet. "You need some?"

 **Play OST - Fairy Tail - Mystogan Theme**

"No thanks." Mika turned down the offer as she aimed her hand at one of the Cerberus. "I already have a solution to this."

Mika waves her hands around and suddenly creates five magic-circles on top of the Cerberus. One yellow, one red, one dark blue, one light blue, and the last one being purple. Each one of them looked to be filled with a strong magical force.

Mika smiled. "In a fight like this I need a strong opening spell, so I gathered up a lot of Demonic-Power before the fight started. All I needed was a target."

 _ **FIVE LAYERED MAGIC-CIRCLE: DAYBREAKER!**_

Mika activated her which releases a concentrated beam of magic power directly below it her target. The beam was so large it was like a narrow skyscraper had suddenly sprung up and completely engulfed the guard dog from Hell. The pressure from the attack made the ground shake some more and sent out a shockwave that was felt by everyone one the ground. After a few seconds the beam dissipated and Cerberus' body was utterly vaporised.

Shirou slowly approached her. "Waoh, where the Hell did that come from?" He asked.

Mika happily answered her brother. "While I was studying stronger spells I discovered a interesting method. Magicians who are strong enough can chain spells together by linking up different magic-circles." She explained. "By doing that I can unleash a magic attack much stronger than my current power could normally handle. The only problem is it takes a while to make."

"I love seeing you blow people away with explosive magic." Shirou praised.

"Your words aren't enough Broviral. What I want his your heart~" Mika said, in her usual perverted tone.

"Anyways." Shirou continued, ignoring her entirely. "Now there's only two Cerberus's left."

"Actually, there's only one." Akeno said, lifting her finger up towards the sky.

Her Demonic-Power was radiating so much it was blanketing her entire body. She was surrounded by a strong yellowish-golden glow, along with sparks of electricity all over her. Thanks to the power up she gained, the Gremory Queen was ready to unleash all her power in one shot.

 _ **RESOUND THUNDER!**_

Akeno pointed her fingers to the sky and started to control the thunder. Her fingers were aimed towards the Cerberus.

The Cerberus tried to run from the spot as if it predicted the upcoming thunder and while it was a hideous beast from the deepest pits of hell, it was still an animal that had instincts and right now those instincts were standing warning signals like his life deepened on it. Because in this case, it did.

STAB!

Countless Swords pierced through the Cerberus' limb! The Swords were coming out from the ground! This is…

"I won't let you escape."

The person who appeared was the groups "Knight". It was Kiba's Sword-Birth. He suddenly appeared out of know on the battlefield.

 _"I knew he'd come."_ Shirou thought pleased once he saw Kiba's arrival.

FLASH!

The Thunder went down at Cerberus after it lost its movement due to the Demonic-Swords. The lightning was so big that it couldn't be compared to the ones she normally uses. The lightning covered almost half of the school grounds.

 _RUUUUUUUMBLEEEEEE!_

The howl of the Cerberus was overshadowed by the sound, and its body turned to nothingness from the Lightning. Because of its major power up, the potential Demonic-energy got used up rapidly responding to the strength of it. Even if it was Rias and Akeno, continuous shots would have been hard for them. This shot tired out Akeno completely. The moment the another Cerberus disappeared, Rias pointed her hand towards Kokabiel.

"Take this! Kokabiel!"

 _DOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNN!_

There was a gigantic mass of Demonic-Power that shot out from Rias' hand. It was more than 10 times bigger than the usual shot Rias fires. It gained high velocity and went towards the leader of the Fallen-Angels who was sitting up in the sky.

Shirou was somewhat confused.

 _"Somethings odd. I Boosted their power, but it was just one Boost."_ Shirou thought. _"How did they release such high velocity with just that? Did they get stronger somehow?"_

The truth is the two of them were stronger. Back during their training on the mountains, Rias resolved herself to get stronger for the sake of being someone strong enough for Shirou to rely on. And Akeno felt some shame and guilt for being the only member of the Peerage to have accomplished nothing during the Rating Game against Phenex, despite being the Queen.

Because of these thoughts the two of them had. They both trained in secret whenever they had the time ever since. They wanted to both increase their magic-power and Demonic-power, along with their maximum reserves. After training for so long they were both able to make milestones in their abilities and are both much stronger than before. This is the result of them showing that new strength for the first time in a real fight.

Alias things aren't that easy.

 **Music Off**

The power of Destruction fell on top of Kokabiel. Rias was hoping he would perish with that. But he just stretched one of his hands to the front.

 _BAAAAAAAANG!_

He was blocking Rias' shot with only one of his hands. Rias' expression showed she couldn't believe it.

 _GUUUN!_

Kokabiel faced his palm towards the sky. The shot that was fired by Rias changed its direction and went up to the sky and disappeared. Kokabiel showed his malicious smile after seeing the smoke coming out of his hand.

"I see. Rias Gremory's power would grow this much because of the power of Red Dragon Emperor. Interesting. This is very interesting indeed. Kukuku." Kokabiel started to laugh by himself as if he find it funny.

ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!

The last remaining Cerberus let out a vicious roar.

"Oh yeah, there's one left." Shirou noticed.

Though before anyone did anything Koneko rushed in a struck at the dogs eye, causing it to step back.

"Should we help her?" Mika asked.

"…Not yet." Shirou decided.

Koneko continued her assault as she jumped onto Cerberus' head and grabbed it by the ears, forcing the middle head to bite down on the left head's neck. Koneko kept wresting with the heads, trying to avoid their bites. Eventually she was flipped off and thrown into the air, one of reached out and managed to bite her, which scratched her arm along with tearing the front bit of her Uniform shirt, a side of her skirt, and a bit of her bra.

Another head followed up and reached out its mouth, closing it with the girl inside.

"Okay now." Shirou got ready to attack.

But he stopped when he suddenly the beasts jaw was trembling and that followed with it being forced opened. Koneko was using her legs to press open Cerberus' mouth with her Rook strength. Struggling the White-haired girl gave one final push and with a kick she backflipped out of its mouth, knocking out some of its fangs as a result. Making the creature cry out in pain. Landing on another head, Koneko jumped forward and kicked it in the eyes sending the three headed dog to the ground in a thud. Landing on the ground herself Koneko grabbed her hurt arm.

"Are you all right?!" Asia shouted running towards her fellow Devil.

Grabbing her injured arm, Koneko nodded. "…For the most part."

"Good grief." Shirou appearing beside them. "Can't you go one fight without having everyone see your underwear?"

Koneko looked irritated. "…I don't do it on purpose."

"I know, you aren't Rias." Shirou turned his attention the Cerberus whom got back up. "Let me take care of this."

"…Wait, …I want to defeat it myself, …Please let me." Koneko insisted.

"We don't have time for—"

GAAAAAAAAOOOOO!

Shirou was interrupted when the creature in question leaped out and pounced towards the three of them.

SLASH!

One of the heads of the Cerberus that was coming at them went up into the sky. It was cut. And the the person who was responsible appeared, the one who wielded a long Excalibur. It was Xenovia. The head of the Cerberus that was cut turned to dust.

"I have come to back you up."

STEP!

After saying that, Xenovia went on slashing towards the Cerberus' torso. The Cerberus howled in pain because it lost one of its heads.

GAAAAAAOOOOOOO!

The Cerberus' torso split in half after receiving a fatal strike. There was smoke coming out, and the Cerberus started to vaporise. It was the effect of the holy-sword.

"The strike of the Holy-Sword. It gives critical damage to Demonic-creatures. As Shirou-kun demonstrated before." Akeno grinned.

"I rather we didn't need the help, but I'm glad she's here." Rias said with a smile.

STAB!

Xenovia thrust her Sword deep into the Cerberus' chest to finish it off. That moment, the Cerberus' body turned into dust and disappeared.

"You sure took your time getting here." Shirou commented.

"Sorry, I had some trouble finding the place." Xenovia explained. "So what's the situation?"

Before Shirou could answer a loud and excited voice shouted out.

"…It's complete."

Balba's voice. Then the four Excaliburs that were placed on the center of the school field started giving out incredible amounts of light.

Kokabiel started applauding. "The four Excaliburs are going to become one."

"That was the longest five minutes of my life." Shirou muttered.

It started giving out divine light that spread throughout the school field. Because of its brightness, everyone covered their eyes faces with our hands. When they stared at the center of the school field, they saw that the four Excaliburs were put on top of each other. Afterwards, the light shot up in the air as a beam. The beam of light went all the way into the sky, anyone with awareness of the supernatural could see it. Excalibur that was originally one. It was split into seven, but four of them were going to become one. When the bright lights were gone, there was one Holy-Sword at the center of the field giving out a blue-white aura.

"Oh no." Kiba said in shock as Xenovia gasped.

Balba laughed happily, as his eyes gave him a look of madness. "Finally, it is done!" He exclaimed. The magic-circle spread around the whole school field and it started glowing and gathering power. "Because of the light created by the Excalibur when it turned into one, the spell on the ground is also complete. I suggest you all leave quickly. This whole area is going to be destroyed in less than thirty minutes."

His words astonished everyone there. Thirty minutes meant by the time Sirzechs arrived it would already be to late. "If you want to save it, you'll have to defeat me. Kokabiel said with a smirk as he spread his ten wings and sat up from his throne. "Ready Rias Gremory?"

The floating throne pedestal vanished in a shower of light particles while Rias turned to face her new opponent.

"I'm ready!" Rias responded with another shot of her powers.

 _DOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNN!_

Once again another massive amount of Demonic-power shot out from Rias' hands and raced towards Kokabiel. However, he surprised her again by actually catching the attack. Akeno, however wasn't going to give him the opportunity to do anything with the Demonic-power in his hand. With a snap of her finger the Gremory Peerage Queen launched a large Thunderbolt at him.

But just like Rias' Kokabiel caught it. He then mashed the two powers together over his head, now holding up a huge Black and Crimson ball of Demonic-power and death, which he threw at Rias. Rias froze in the air. She couldn't get away from it, the attack was going to hit her. "Chief!" She was then taken by surprise when Akeno put herself between her master and the Demonic-power.

 _ **MAGIC FIELD BARRIER!**_

 _BAAAAAAAANG!_

Mika acted quickly and put up both her hands to activate a defensive spell meant to protect Rias and Akeno from the attack. Once it hit, the sphere and the barrier collided in a power-struggle between offence and defence. This created a large shockwave that knocked both the girls away despite not getting hit by the sphere, they were falling from the sky until Shirou and Kiba spread their wings and flew out catching Akeno and Rias respectively.

Lucky though the barrier proved strong enough to stop the Demonic-power ball as the sphere faded away into nothingness. Mika breathed a sigh of relief.

Shirou held Akeno in bridal-style and landed back on the ground. When they landed Akeno groaned and opened her eyes. She felt herself in the arms of someone strong, holding her close and securely in their warmth. Akeno looked up at the face and saw that it was Shirou, looking down upon her. "Shirou-kun?"

"Mind telling me what that was about?" Shirou asked, still holding her bridal-style. "I told you guys, I would take on Kokabiel."

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to do whatever I could to help out in this battle." Akeno said, looking away from him. "But I just wasted all that power you gave me."

Shirou sighed and put her down. "Listen, why do you think I want to fight him alone? Because I'm not stupid, this guy's no joke and if you go at him unprepared, you'll die." He then walked towards Kokabiel with his fists clenched and ready. "That's why I'm here. No one's dying while I'm around."

Akeno watched him go in amazement, before smiling with a blush. "And there he goes," She said to herself. "Fearless and confident as always, but that's why some many are drawn to him."

Now Shirou was floating in the air, confronting the Cadre Fallen Angel, his Sword already drawn from its sheath. "Don't get cocky just 'cause you can deflect some magic, when I'm finished with you you'll just be a pile of feathers."

Kokabiel looked him amused. "I'm surprised you can still keep that composure of yours. Or are you just hoping that Sirzechs will somehow arrive in time?"

"I never intended on waiting for anyone from the started." Shirou answered back, keeping his tone defiant. "I'm all we need to stop a senile rampaging crow like you."

"Hahahahaha! You're a fool, you really think you can stop me?" Kokabiel cackled.

"I don't think, I know!" Shirou shouted as the blade of Dyrnwyn ignited in flames and he charged at his opponent ready to fight it out. "WHO THE HELL TO YOU THINK I AM!" He roared.

Shirou slashed his flaming blade at Kokabiel, who raised up his fist to block it. Shirou used the momentum from his attack and shifted his weight to throw a strong punch with his right arm, aiming at his face. The Fallen Angel swayed his head to the left and dodged it, though Shirou saw that coming and changed the direction of his fist, slamming Kokabiel with a backhanded punched on his right check. This got him and as he flew back and summoned two Swords of Light. Shirou extended his right arm and covered it with a Blade of Lightning followed by powering up, with that they both dived in and began an exchange of attacks.

 **[BOOST!]**

KATCHIN!

Everyone watching was both surprised and amazed. Throughout this battle they had witnessed how much Kokabiel outclassed them with his massive amount of power and yet Shirou was somehow holding his own against him. The idea of him defeating Kokabiel on his own now seemed like a possibility. Though there was one person who watching and seemed preoccupied with taking care of something else.

It was Kiba, and he was walking straight towards Balba. He stopped a few feet away from the old man and the newly formed Excalibur. He gripped on one of his Swords tightly in his hands. "Balba Galilei." He said calmly, but in his eyes the flames of hatred were burning like an inferno. "I am a survivor of the "Holy-Sword Project". No. I am the one who was killed by you to be more precise."

This got the attention of everyone who wasn't fighting. Kiba closed his eyes and smirked. "I have continued living by being reincarnated into a Devil. I refused to die because I knew…" He opened his eyes again. "…One day, I would avenge the deaths of MY COMRADES!"

He charged fourth, intending to end Balba's life.

"YUUTO!" Rias cried out at her Knight. "NO!"

Kokabiel who noticed what was happening decided to do something. He pushed Shirou away from his blades and converted them into a large Spear of Light and throw it in Kiba direction. Shirou saw this and dashed towards him with the increased speed that came from his promotion, almost disappearing as he did so. He appeared between Kiba and the Spear and held up his Sword, flaring up its Holy-aura.

 _BAAAAAAAANG!_

When the Spear hit the ground, it caused a massive explosion of Light and a large amount of dust and rubble formed in the spot where the two of them were standing. Kokabiel grinned evilly at what he had done, while everyone else looked shocked and concerned for the two Devils that were hit.

"SHIROU! YUUTO!" Rias shouted in worry.

"Relax, their fine." Mika told her. Appearing to be the only one there who wasn't worried.

And her words were revealed to be true as once the dust started to clear, it showed the form of Shirou standing firm with his feet planted on the ground, while holding his Sword in a defensive stance which helped him block the Spear. Behind him was Kiba on one knee, he looked a little ruffled but was otherwise unhurt. Rias breathed a sigh of relief while Mika smiled.

"I thought so, it'll take a lot more than that to stop him."

Kokabiel though cackled at the sight. "You were able to reach my attack before it hit and on top of that you used the Holy-aura of your Sword to block it, while knocking that little rat behind you out of the way." He mockingly praised, as if was it a joke. "You really are making this entertaining for me."

"Maybe I wasn't clear enough." Shirou aimed the tip of his blade at his enemy. "When I said no one's dying while I'm around, what I meant was the only one's dying today are you people!"

"You seem to under some kind of delusion, or do you actually believe your at my level?" Kokabiel asked, making Shirou glare at him hatefully. "To me that was just a warm up to stretch my legs a bit, why don't you try something more simple for now. Freed!"

"You called!" The White-haired boy priest emerged from literally out of nowhere. "I'm here~!"

"Use the Excalibur in the circle. It shall be the last entertainment. Fight while using the Excalibur that has turned into one from the four Excaliburs."

"Yeah yeah. Geez. My Boss sure uses people recklessly." Freed put on a crazy smile while holding the Excalibur located at the centre of the school field. "But but! It's like I'm so honoured to use the Excalibur-chan that has become super wonderful! Something like that? Uhehehe! I will just chop some Devils now!"

"Are kidding me? This again." Shirou sounded feed up at the idea of fighting Freed again, like a child who had only one game that he played everyday until he become sick of it. "I swear, this better be the last time."

"Wait." Ren told him as he appeared by Shirou's side. "Let me take him."

"What?" Shirou was confused by how out of nowhere his request was. "Why? I can finish this in a second, literally I mean it's just Freed."

"That's right it is _just_ Freed. That's why you should leave this to someone else, you can't waste any strength on grunts, we all need you at your best to beat Kokabiel." Ren looked serious and determined to fight this battle, and for Shirou to not do so. "Let me do my part and take him on."

Shirou thought about it brief, and then he nodded. "Go on then, but I get to cut his head off."

"Deal." Ren smirked and walked towards him.

"So it's your turn first, huh? Torchy?!" Freed asked with his crazed smile. "I was hoping for a Devil but chopping up a human isn't so bad either, it's just like Priest-hunting!"

"Your nothing but an overzealous cockroach, no matter how many times you get crushed you keep coming back." Ren stopped a few feet away and used his Sacred Gear to light his fists a blaze. "So this time, I'll burn you to ashes."

"How scary~" The Psycho Priest just seemed to get more excited. "Let's see you try!"

"I'll start by burning off your tongue!" Ren exclaimed as he created a Javelin of fire in his right hand and charged at Freed.

"Too slow." Freed disappeared in a blur before Ren could hit him. He stopped and looked around for him.

Kiba got back up and looked towards Shirou who was just watching the fight. "Shouldn't we help him?"

"Who Ren?" Shirou asked, as if he didn't understand why he would ask. "There's no need for that. I mean, I'll admit the Sword he's using is trouble, but." He watched them with an unconcerned expression on his face. "Who do you think has been training with almost everyday now, when Ren gets serious no one can avoid getting burned."

"Now watch carefully! Can you keep up with the Chopper-Rapidly?" Freed appeared behind the flame-user. Upon hearing his voice, Ren looked over his shoulder. "So fresh!" The madman exclaimed with his tongue out. "Such an amazing Excalibur! This bad boy can make anything happen!"

Freed brought his four-in-one Excalibur down on Ren, but already knowing what to do, Ren made his flame Javelin vanished and clapped his hands together.

 **Play OST - Magi - Eye Of The Dragon**

 _ **KAGUTSUCHI!**_

FLAAAAAAAAAAAME!

Surrounding Ren was a large sphere of fire that cover himself and everything around him in a dome of raging flames, the radius was only a few feet wide but that was far enough for the flames to consume Freed as intended. After a few seconds the Psycho Priest in question leaped out of the flames, he was covered in burns and looked extremely pissed. Ren dispersed the attack looking untouched, though the ground around him was burnt black and smoking.

"Like they always say, look before you leap." Ren taunted.

Freed started shaking and his eyes darkened, as if he could that someone who dare to talk down to him while he was holding the Sword in his hands. "From Shirou to this fucker… THIS TOWN IS FULLED WITH PEOPLE WHO PISS ME OFF!" Freed bellowed angrily before his merged Excalibur started to glow.

The blade then extended in a flexible way, similar to Irina's Excalibur.

BASH!

Ren effortlessly dodged the first blade.

"It's not just Mimicry, you know!" Freed said, bringing the Sword over his head. Going high in the air, the blade spilt into four, thin blades that went towards their prey.

BASH! BASH! BASH!

Once again, Ren dodged all four attack by waiving past the blades.

"It's a nightmare!" Freed exclaimed as multiple copies of himself appeared. Ren looked around as his eyes narrowed, the clones then jumped at him. "This is the power of Excalibur Nightmare! Don! Don! Don! How do you like it, well Torchy?"

"An illusion?" Xenovia gasped.

"Transparency!" Freed exclaimed as the blade of the fusion Excalibur seemed to have disappeared. The copies of Freed took turns attacking him, but Ren slipped pasted and avoided all attempts at his life.

"How's he doing that?" Akeno asked, shocked by the power Freed had.

"It's the four Excaliburs." Xenovia informed her. "He can use all their abilities."

"Does that mean Ren-san can't do anything against him?" Asia asked, worried for her friend.

Xenovia shook her head. "I'm afraid not on his own."

"All of you!" Shirou called out getting their attention. ".….Shut up and watch."

They were all surprised to hear him say that, it meant that Shirou believed that Ren could still overcome this on his own. They watched interested to see why he thought that even though they couldn't see how.

"DIE!" All the copies of Freed came at him from every direction and charged at Ren simultaneously.

"Now." Ren muttered as he took this chance he was waiting for a jumped upwards in the air, once he was high enough he held out his hand towards Freed and gathered up flames in his palm.

 ** _INFERNO SWARM!_**

Bursting from his hand was a swarm of over a dozen fireballs that were launching towards Freed at high speed. Once they hit the ground it started a chain of explosions that came together covering everything nearby, it was like setting of a minefield. Once Ren landed and the explosions ceased, there was a pillar of smoke that surrounded the spot of the attack. When the smoke cleared Freed was revealed to standing there on one knee, parts of his skin were severely burned his blade was now visible and all his illusions were gone.

 **Music Off**

"An invisible blade? Illusions of yourself? Do you think I'm stupid enough to fall for those thousand year old tricks?" Ren asked, almost insulted. "If I can still see the person holding the Sword and the real on is mixed in with the illusion than all I need to do is attack all of them at once, a child could figure it out."

Freed got up and coughed. "…Well…Aren't you smart."

"No, you're just stupid, as always."

"Guess he really didn't need help." Kiba noted.

"And he's still not at 100% yet." Shirou added.

"This is ridiculous!" Balba shouted angrily. Shirou looked at the excommunicated Arch-Bishop and saw him glaring at Freed. "Freed, you're wielding a Sword that has the greatest power possible after fusing the Excaliburs, how can you be let be overwhelmed by a mere Sacred Gear wielding human?!

"Cram it you shitty Geezer!" Freed sneered at him.

"You know since you don't seem busy, I think now's a good time to ask." Shirou said addressing Balba. "I know you ran the Holy-Sword project, we all do at this point, but the million dollar question is, why? Why did you start all this in the first place?"

"I think we'd all like to know that." Ren agreed.

"Hou. You want to know why? Fufufu!" Balba chuckled for a moment, before he started talking. "Very well then, I should at least tell the last survivor of that project. To meet you in a far east country like this. I feel fate. Fufufu. You see. I like Holy-Swords. I like them so much that they come out in my dreams. Possibly because my heart was fascinated by the legend of Excalibur since I was a child. That's why when I found out that I can't use Excalibur I went into despair." He turned towards Shirou, more specifically the Holy-Sword he was holding. "I held admiration for those like you who can wield it because I couldn't. That feeling became so powerful that I started an experiment to create those who can use them. Then it was complete. It's thanks to you and the others."

 **Play OST - Arslan Senki - Shirarezaru Hibi no Kanata yori**

Kiba lifted his eyebrows seemingly in doubt. "What? Complete? You disposed of us after finding us to be a failure."

Balba shook his head. "I realised that there was an essential factor needed to wield holy-swords. So I used the numerical value of the "factors" to investigate its capability. Most of the test subjects had the "elements" but they didn't have the numerical value needed to wield the Excalibur. Then I reached a conclusion. Is there a way to take out the elements and gather them?" Balba explained to them with a look of insanity.

Kiba's eyes widened, he looked horrified while Shirou clenched his fist, looking ready to kill someone. "And let me guess, doing that would also end up killing them."

"Correct." Balba simply answered, as if he admitted to something perfectly fine. This only fuelled Shirou rage.

Xenovia seemed like she learned the truth and grit her teeth hatefully. "I see. I understand now. The thing that is put inside the Holy-Sword wielders when they received a blessing is….…"

"That's right Holy-Sword wielder girl. We take out the Holy-elements from those who have them and crystallise them. Just like this." Balba took out an orb that was giving out light. It was a shiny orb. It has the so-called Holy aura in it.

"With this, the research on Holy-Sword wielders improved. Even so, those fools from the Church banished me for heresy and took away my reports on the research. By looking at you, I see that the project was succeeded by someone. That Michael. He made me look like a criminal and this is the result? Well it's that Angel we are talking about. Even if he takes the elements out from the test subjects, he wouldn't go as far as to kill them. That part only would make him more human than me. Kukukuku." Balba laughed pleasantly.

"…You killed my comrades and took out the elements needed to wield the Holy-Swords?" Kiba asked Balba with his voice filled with killing intent.

"That's right." Balba replied, still speaking in a pleasant tone. "This orb is from back then. I have used three of them on Freed though. This is the last one."

"Hyahahahaha! Other guys besides me died because their bodies couldn't synchronise with the elements! Hmmmmm. If I think like that, that makes me special." Freed laughed manically.

"You really are a cockroach." Ren stoically commented.

"FUCK. OFF!" Freed shouted back.

"…Balba Galilei. How many lives have you sacrificed for your greed and experiments…" Kiba's hands were shaking and there was an aura of anger coming out of his body. What an incredible intensity.

"Hm. If you say that, then I will give this orb to you." Balba threw away the orb as if he had lost interest in it. It rolled on the ground and went to Kiba's foot. "My research has reached the stage where it is possible to mass produce them in the right environment. First of all, I will destroy this town with Kokabiel. Next I will gather the legendary Holy-Swords stored around the world. Then I will mass produce Holy-Sword wielders and start a war against Michael and the Vatican with the combined Excaliburs. I'm going to show the result of my research to those foolish Angels and their followers who have convicted me—"

"I think you have the wrong idea, you seem to think your actually going to live through this." Shirou interrupted him and flared up his aura. "Before you can even blink your head will be resting at my feet."

Kiba leaned down silently and picked it up. He patted the orb sadly, lovingly, and dearly. There was a tear on Kiba's cheek. His expression was filled with sadness and anger. "…Everyone…"

Then it happened. The orb that Kiba held started giving out shallow lights. The lights started to spread and it eventually covered the whole school field. From the ground there were lights coming out and it started to form a shape. Then it formed into a proper shape. It took the shape of people. There were boys and girls who were giving out blue-white lights and they were surrounding Kiba.

"The various powers that are present on this battlefield made the spirits within the orbs appear." Akeno said.

"Everyone! I….….…I!" Kiba said through his tears, trying to find the words.

 _"I think I get it."_ Shirou thought, simply watching in silence. _"Those kids must be all the victims from the project. Looks like they came to give him his closure."_

"…I have always…always thought about it. Was it all right that I was the only one that survived… There were those who had more dreams than me. There were those who wanted to live more than me. Is it all right that I am the only one to have a peaceful life…"

Then one boy's spirit smiled and it seemed like he wanted to say something.

[Don't worry about us any more. You are alive at least].

 **Music Off**

There were tears coming out from both of his eyes because it seemed like their thoughts reached him. Then the spirits of boys and girls started to move their lips in a rhythm like they were singing.

 **Play OST - Fairy Tail - Lyra's Song**

"…The Sacred Song." Asia mumbled.

They were singing the Sacred-Song….… Kiba started to sing while shedding tears. When they were going through the painful experiment, this was the only thing they obtained to keep their hopes and dreams. This was the only support they had to continue living during their harsh life. Kiba and his comrades had the smiles of innocent children. Their bodies started to glow blue-white. Those lights were getting brighter, with Kiba in the center.

[We were no good alone.]

[We didn't have enough elements to wield the holy swords. But.]

[It will be okay if we are together.]

The others could also hear their voices. Originally the Sacred-Song was supposed to make Devils suffer. But they didn't feel any pain at all. Instead most of them felt warmth. Something warm that was thinking about friends and comrades.

[You have to accept the Holy-Sword.]

[It's not scary.]

[Even if God is watching.]

[Our hearts are always…]

[ONE.]

 **Music Off**

Their spirits went up into the heaven and they turned into a big light that fell down to Kiba.

 **[Partner.]**

Shirou looked down at his arm having suddenly hearing the voice of the Dragon in his arm. _"What?"_

 **[That "Knight" has reached it.]**

 _"Reached what?"_

 **[Sacred Gears change and evolve while using the feelings of the possessors as a key. But there is a different territory to that. When the feelings and the wishes of the possessor does a dramatic change that it changes the flow of this world, the Sacred Gear reaches it. Yes. This is….…]**

Ddraig made a laugh of enjoyment.

 **[Balance Break.]**

The light that split the abyss night looked as if it was giving blessings to Kiba. After the light disappeared Kiba opened his eyes and scowled at Balba who looked a little worried. "I understand now. My former-comrades weren't wishing for me to deliver their vengeance. But it's not like everything is solved. Yes, it hasn't ended. If I don't take down the evil thing right in front of me, there will be a repetition of the incident that happened to us." he said, before walking towards the old man. "Balba Galilei. As long as I don't kill you, there will be those who would suffer the same fate as us."

Balba looked at him as if he was speaking to a rat. "Hmph. It's been said for a long time that research always comes with sacrifices. Haven't you realised that yet?"

"You certainly are evil!"

"Yuuto! Do it! You have to finish this yourself! Surpass Excalibur! You are the servant of I, Rias Gremory! My "Knight" will not lose to a mere Excalibur!" Rias shouted.

"Yuuto-kun! I believe in you!" Akeno added.

"…Yuuto-senpai!" Koneko said in a normal tone, which was loud by her standard.

"Please do your best!" Asia joined in.

"Slice them to pieces!" Mika yelled.

"Make the final blow!" Ren reached out his fist towards him.

"Chief Rias, Akeno-san! Koneko-chan, Asia, Mika, Ren-kun. Everyone." Kiba muttered, the tears in his eyes continued to fall. This time with joy.

"Hahaha!" Freed let out his disgusting laugh again. Though he was fried, he could still fight. "Why are you crying? You were singing with joy with the ghost-chan. It's really a nuisance. It's totally the worst. You know I hate that song. Just listening to it makes the hair on my skin crawl! I don't want to hear it any more. I'm totally at my limit! I'm going to cut you into pieces and calm myself! With this ultimate Excalibur that has merged four of them!"

Kiba got into a fighting stance. But then a thought came into his head. "…I will become a Sword." He dropped his stance and pointed his Demonic-Sword to the sky. "My comrades. My comrades who have merged with my spirit. Let us overcome it together. The feelings we couldn't say back then! The wishes we couldn't fulfil back then! Right now, right here!"

Two powers, his Sacred Gear and the spirits of his comrades exited from the Sword.

"I shall become the sword of the Chief and my comrades! Please respond to my feelings now! Sword-Rebirth!"

They mixed. It started to align and formed a shape. The Demonic-power and the Holy-power were combining. Kiba could feel it, the sensation. My Sacred Gear and his comrade were telling him. This is sublimation. It was giving out Divine light and an ominous aura. Two opposing powers were coming into harmony, darkness and light came together to create a breathtaking sight. When it stopped, what appeared in his hand was a single sword… It was completed.

"Balance-Breaker "Sword of the Betrayer". Kiba declared.

 _"So that's his Balance-Breaker?"_ Shirou asked.

 **[That's right. That is the Ultimate form of his Sacred Treasure. Though it appears to be a Sub-Species. Rather than a regular one, this is a unique Balance-Breaker made specifically by the "Knight" born from his own will.]**

Shirou processed Ddraig's words, finding them to be a very interesting bit of information. _"A person can create a new Balance-Breaker just for them based on their own will huh?"_ This gave Shirou many idea, if what Ddraig said was true then he could just imagine how much potential his Sacred Gear could have once he got his Balance-Breaker. He then thought of something else. _"Tell me, why can't I use my Balance-Breaker? Am I not strong enough?"_

 **[No, in fact you've already reached a stage where you're powerful enough to have it. However, acquiring Balance-Breaker requires you to reach your peak in both body and mind. You need a certain catalyst to truly grow beyond what you already are just as the "Knight" has. Once you've achieved that, Balance-Breaker will be yours.]**

 _"So I need to be triggered huh? That'll be complicated?"_ Deciding to settle this later, Shirou came out of his thoughts and went over to where Kiba was.

"Holy and Devil powers fused together?" Rias looked at her Knight with astonishment.

"Ho…Holy-Demonic Sword…? Impossible… The polar opposites of two things cannot merge…" Balba made a strong expression as he tried to fathom how the creation of Kiba's new Sword was even possible.

"You shall receive the power of this sword that has both the power of Holy and Demonic powers with your own body." Kiba roared.

He ran towards Freed. Freed tried to grasp my movement with his eyes, but Kiba got out of his sight by doing a few feints.

GINNNNNNNNNG!

Even so, Freed blocked his strike. But the aura that was covering his Excalibur was being erased by his Sword.

"That Sword surpasses the originator of Holy-Swords!?" Freed said in a shocked voice.

"If that was the true Excalibur, then I could not have won against it. But that Excalibur cannot cut the feelings of me and my comrades!" Kiba said with confidence.

Freed clicked his tongue, and stepped back after he pushed back Kiba.

"Stretccccccch!"

His Excalibur started to twist as if it were alive. It moved randomly and came towards Kiba with intense speed using the ability of "Excalibur Mimic". Then his sword split into two at the tip of the blade, and started to come at him with god speed. That was thanks to the ability of "Excalibur Rapidly". It accurately tried to pierce the Knight from every direction, but he blocked each strike. Freed's killing intent made it easy for Kiba to read his moves. Because he knew which direction the killing intent was coming from, parrying Excalibur wasn't a problem.

"Why!? Why isn't it hitting!? You are supposed to be the unrivalled Holy-Sword-sama, aren't you!? Weren't you supposed to have lots of legends of being the Ultimate Sword!?" Freed shouted. His expression was filled with both enjoyment and impatience. "Then! Then I have to add this as well!"

The tip of the Holy-Sword disappeared. Transparency pheromone. This was the power of "Excalibur Transparency". Using that ability he made the blade transparent. But since he couldn't change the direction of his killing intent, even if I can't see the blade Kiba could still sense it.

GIIN! GIN! GIN! GIIIN!

The transparent Sword and the Holy-Demonic Sword made sparks. Kiba was still parrying all of his attacks.

Freed narrowed his eyes and made a shocked face.

"Yes. Keep him there like that." Xenovia suddenly intruded. She held the Excalibur-Destruction in her left-hand and thrust into the ground.

The blue-haired girl then held out her right-hand in the air.

"Saint Peter. Saint Basil the Great. Saint Denis. Holy-mother Mary. Please hear my voice." She started to chant something. As she did the space in front of her arm became distorted. Xenovia put her hand in the middle of the distorted space. She reached in, and pulled something right out of the dimensional gap. What appeared was a single long blue Sword with golden edge that was as big as her body, it gave out a strong Holy aura. Chains were bound to the Sword, tying it into the gap. "In the names of the saints whom reside within this blade, I will release it. Durandal!"

Not just Balba, even Kokabiel couldn't hide his astonishment. They weren't the only ones, all the Devils along with Ren were completely blown away not once expecting this turn of events. After all Durandal is a Sword that is so famous that it is on par with Excalibur. And in terms of slashing, it is the Ultimate Sword. No one expected Xenovia to have it.

"A Durandal!?" Kokabiel spoke in shock.

"You were not the wielder of the Excalibur!?" Balba asked in utter disbelief.

"Wrong. I was originally the wielder of Durandal. I was also chosen as the holder of the Excalibur. That's all." Xenovia made a stance with Durandal. She seemed more comfortable with it than Excalibur.

"Absurd! According to my research, we haven't reached the stage where someone can wield Durandal!?" Balba shouted, refusing to believe it.

"Of course. Even in the Vatican, they haven't made someone who can wield Durandal artificially." Xenovia agreed.

"Then why!?"

"Unlike those common artificial Holy-Sword wielders like Irina, I'm a natural born wielder." Xenovia answered, with a hint of Pride.

Balba became speechless at her words.

 _"Ah, so she's like me."_ Shirou thought, on the fact that he was a natural born wielder himself. _"That still doesn't explain everything, but whatever."_

"Durandal is a Sword that ravages beyond what people can imagine." Xenovia continued. "It cuts anything it touches. It doesn't even listen to me most of the time. That's why I have to keep it in another dimension, otherwise it would be dangerous. Even I, the holder, has a hard time with it. Now, Freed Zelzan. Thanks to you, we can have the decisive battle between Excalibur and Durandal. Right now, I'm shaking with enjoyment. Don't die in a single strike okay? At least use the Excalibur to its fullest!"

The blade of Durandal started to give out more Holy-aura than the Excalibur Freed held. The aura it had was more powerful than even the Holy-Demonic Sword.

"Is that even allowed!? It became a situation like this! You shitty bitch! I don't need any of that for this setting!" Freed shouted and moved his killing intent to Xenovia.

"That is a Holy-Sword but it isn't a Holy-Sword. Even if it's a Holy-Sword, it's the same as any other weapon. It changes depending on the person using it. That is a Sword of heresy. And so in the name of God, I will cut you down!" Xenovia declared.

Freed closed in and slashed his Transparent Sword towards her.

GAKIIIN!

With a single side slash, the Excalibur shattered. Because of the pressure given by the swing of Durandal, there was another large crater in the school field.

"So it's just a broken Holy-Sword, huh. It can't even compete with my Durandal." Xenovia made a sigh while looking bored.

Freed's expression was that of a person who snapped. "Are you serious!? Are you really serious!? The legendary Excalibur-chan is shattered into pieces!? Horrible! This is really horrible! Kaaaa! Was it wrong to use something that was broken from the start? The shallowness of humans. The foolishness of the Church. I want to grow up while taking a glimpse of it!"

Through his mad ranting, Kiba went right at him, preparing to end it. Freed also couldn't respond to it in time and tried to block the Holy-Demonic Sword with the remnants of his Excalibur but….…

BAAAKIIIN!

A shallow shattering sound echoed. The sound of the Excalibur crumbling.

"Did you see it? Our powers have surpassed Excalibur." Kiba gently whispered to his Sword.

Freed completely out of options knew he had to get away somehow. But before he could even take one step, Shirou appeared in front of him with blinding speed beyond even a Knight and already had his Sword drew, preparing to slash. His expression was a dark and merciless one.

"I should have done this a long time ago." Shirou said in a dark tone.

Igniting the blade with flames Shirou slashed out his Dyrnwyn and with one swing, Freed's head was chopped off his neck. Freed's fell down while blood came out of the now headless neck, the decapitated head in question rolled on the ground, stopping slightly next to the body as they both rested in a poll of blood. In a few seconds both the head and body lit up in flames, burning away like a large torch, burning away any evidence that the one known as Freed Zelzan ever lived.

The field was as silent as a grave, no one dared to utter a word. Freed was a hated existence that no one would mourn. but none of them knew what to say after seeing Shirou just execute him like that. Battle to the death. You couldn't stand in this place unless you were prepared to die and you had to accept the fact that it wouldn't be weird to lose your life. But it was easier to die than to kill, that's what most of them felt, Shirou obviously didn't share that sentiment however. From her expression Mika didn't seem to mind either.

"Ho…Holy-Demonic Sword…? Impossible… Two things that are conflicting existences cannot merge…" Balba Galilei made a strong fortunately enough brought everyone's attention to him instead instead of Freed.

Shirou pointed his Holy-Sword at him and prepared himself to end his life as well. "You're next,old man."

But Balba didn't notice Shirou's threat and kept babbling to himself. "…I see! I understand now! Holy and Demonic. It will be an explanation, if the beings that represent the two become unbalanced then it is possible! Then not only the Devil King but the God has also…"

STAB.

A spear of light pierced through Balba's chest, who seemed like he realised something. Balba went down after throwing a solid amount of blood. Soon his dead body vanished into particles of light.

Balba. You were remarkable. The reason you went up to that conclusion proves that. But, I don't mind whether you are with me or not. I could have done it by myself from the beginning."

Kokabiel who was up in the air was sneering. The one who killed Balba was Kokabiel.

"Hahahaha! Kahahahahahahahaha!" Kokabiel laughed loudly and landed on the ground. An overwhelming pressure. The leader of the Fallen-Angels finally stood in front of the group while sending out an intense aura and confidence. While smiling fearlessly he said. "Sekiryuutei. Increase your power to it's maximum and then fight me."

He made an order full of confidence, and Rias got enraged. "Are you trying to give us a chance!? Don't mess around!"

Kokabiel seemed amused by her outburst. "Don't mess around? Hahaha. You guys are the ones who are messing around. Do you guys think you can defeat me?"

Shirou stepped forward, not caring about how strong his opponent was. "I what happens while I'm powering up? I seriously doubt you'll be patient enough to just wait."

"Hahahaha! No of course not." Kokabiel pointed to the group behind Shirou. "To pass the time, I'll be fighting the rest of them. The Sister of Sirzechs and her Peerage, including the Holy-Demonic Sword, a powerful Sacred Gear user and the wielder of Durandal. I'll be entertained for a few minutes at least."

Everyone of them snarled at Kobabiel. They knew that he was stronger then they were but it was beyond looking down on them if he felt he could beat all of them by himself without a struggle. Even though they felt a lot of pressure from facing a Fallen-Angel that has been recorded in the bible since ancient times. The fact remained that if they didn't defeat him this town would vanish.

"Guys!" Shirou yelled out, getting everyone's attention. He held up his Boosted Gear and prepared himself. "…Stall him."

Those simple words, filled with the same arrogance that they knew only Shirou could pull off somehow ignited their fighting spirit and they all hardened their resolve, ready to take on this overwhelming foe.

"Don't be to upset if we defeat him before you're ready." Akeno said, in a teasing manner.

Shirou smirked. "Hmph… Don't get cocky."

 **[BOOST!]**

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. To start things of, It was obvious Shirou wouldn't just go along with the whole "Stay back and support the group" because really, he's a pure-breed fighter. Not to mention he doesn't recognise the others as being strong enough to win without him, so of course he didn't agree to it. I also wanted Mika to be the one to break them up because, that part of her specialty.**

 **Next when taking out the Cerberus' I wanted to demonstrate Shirou's new ability, unlike Issei who just got a signal that told him when he had enough Boosts. I wanted Shirou something that was more useful for his fighting style, so now he can stock up Boosts while fighting and he can Transfer power from a distance. He'll get more abilities like that later so look out. I also demonstrated Mika going repertory of Magic. I figure layered magic-circles would be a good match for her.**

 **And I wanted to show Rias and Akeno growth in power for this fight to because. Rias said she would get stronger back on the mountain but I didn't want everyone to think those were empty words so I showed the results of her training to show that she is putting in the effort, Akeno is doing the same for her own reason. And as for Shirou asking about Balance-Breaker and Subspecies, he will be getting his Balance-Breaker very soon. But Subsoecies won't be for a while.**

 **Then there's Ren. I decided to give him his long overdue time in the spotlight and I did so my having him roast Freed and his merged Excalibur. Ren has had his Sacred Gear for years and he trains with Shirou everyday. If you weren't expecting him to be stronger then you obviously weren't paying attention. And this was Ren without using Senjutsu.**

 **Speaking of Freed I decided to have him be killed right now by Shirou. I was honestly tired of him always coming back and to be honest I wanted to kill him much sooner but I needed him to wield Excalibur first. So this is the end of Freed, don't expect to see him again. As for beheading him, I just really wanted to try that in this story. What did you think, was it to much?**

 **The final opponent is now Kokabiel and don't worry, Shirou and Kokabiel will fight in the next chapter. It'll be a huge fight and expect for a big surprise i the next chapter to. There you'll get the answer to a question you've been waiting for since the beginning. Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review, if you liked the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	22. Awakened Darkness And True Despair

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. I honestly wanted to make this chapter long, but it soon felt like I was dragging it so I finished u sooner. Hope you're all ready though because this is one that you've been waiting for. On this chapter, an important question that has been left unanswered for since the beginning of this story will finally be answered.**

 **Truth is from the beginning I planned on the truth being revealed here and I planned on what it would be since the start of the story. Why because this is just the way I wanted it to be. And I always wanted to try this trope. This chapter will be mostly fighting, but that last parts will be filled with dialogue, it might take a while to finish but it's all-important so don't worry about it. Hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Awakened Darkness And True Despair**

* * *

 _I could feel it…_

 _For as long as I could remember, I could feel something strange inside myself…_

 _Every now and then, when I was alone with my thoughts…_

 _I felt something dark…_

 _Those dark thoughts always entered my mind and I could almost feel myself slipping…_

 _I thought that after I became free I would be happy, but whenever I remember those I killed those dark thoughts always followed…_

 _It was almost as if, it was a part of me like a voice inside was telling me what I did wasn't wrong…_

 _And for a while, I believed it…_

* * *

The battle that would decide the fate of this town was now reaching its final stage. Freed and Balba were dead and Excalibur was destroyed. All that remained was Kokabiel. But that was the most dangerous part. The only one who stood a chance was Shirou and agreeing with that fact, Kokabiel demanded that Shirou power up to his maximum inorder to give him a challenge. And adding to his bravado he instructed the rest to fight him at the same time while Shirou was getting ready. Though it was insulting, everyone agreed to those terms.

As Shirou began to power up. Kokabiel placed himself in front of the others. "Now do try and make things interesting. I'd like to enjoy this last bit of fun before I start a war."

 **Play OST - Seraph Of The End - Dim Light**

Rias gather magic-power around her body and crossed her arms forming an X, creating two magic-circles before separating into one in front of each arm, this followed by a large amount of Power of Destruction appearing from the magic-circles. The two large orbs of Crimson and Black Demonic-power grew until they were big enough to consume a person whole. "In that case… BEGONE!" Rias shouted, unleashing the Power of Destruction at Kokabiel. The power struck Kokabiel but it didn't look like it was affecting him at all.

"Not bad, but nowhere near good enough!" Kokabiel taunted, easily brushing off Rias' attack.

Gritting her teeth Rias summoned forth another wave of Destruction and blasted it towards Kokabiel but he was just laughing madly. As if all of her power meant nothing, Kokabiel simply dismissed the wave of Demonic-power with little effort.

"Go Akeno!" Rias shouted, looking up.

Following her lead, Akeno floated in the sky and gather her magic.

"Now come forth! Thunder!" Sticking her fingers in the air, Lightning from the sky struck the Priestess' outstretched hand and she launched it at Kokabiel. However, the Fallen-Angel brought out his ten wings and wrapped them around his body like a shield, blocking the attack.

"Will you stand in my way!? The one who inherited her power from Barakiel!?" Kokabiel taunted through his defence.

"Don't speak his name! I am nothing like that creature!" Akeno declared angrily. Her magic flared up because of that.

"Yeesh, what's her deal and who's Barakiel?" Ren asked, confused by the sudden anger.

"Barakiel is one of the Cadre-Class Fallen-Angels." Mika explained. "We learned about him along with the rest of the leaders of the Trinity Factions during our mountain training. He's also Thunder user who has the alias "Holy-Lightning". In terms of basic fighting ability, he is said to be on par with the Head of the Fallen-Angels, Azazel. Though I don't know what that has to do with Akeno." Mika thought for a second, thinking of one possibility _"….…Unless."_

Kokabiel laughed loudly after nullifying Akeno's attack completely. "For you to become a Devil! Hahaha! You have pleasant servants, Rias Gremory! Sekiryuutei! The left-over of the Holy-Sword project who reached Balance-Breaker! And the daughter of Barakiel! You have weird tastes, just like your brother!"

 _"So she's his daughter?"_ Mika thought, almost surprised. _"Looks like my guess was right. But still, this means she's half Fallen-Angel."_

 _"Considering most of Rias' Peerage isn't reacting much, that means they knew."_ Ren noticed. _"I wonder what Shirou thinks about this."_

Shirou just focused on powering up, believing this wasn't the time to worry about that.

Gritting her teeth in anger Rias stood tall. "I won't forgive you for insulting my brother… our Maou! More than that, the insults you made to my servants will require your life!" Rias shouted as the winds around her picked up.

Kokabiel laughed Rias' anger. He then said provokingly, "Then try to destroy me! Devil King's Sister! The owner of "Welsh Dragon"! Crimson-hair Ruin Princess! The one whom you are up against is someone who has been an arch-enemy of the Devils since a long time ago! If you don't see this as a chance, then your reputation will be looked down on!"

Slamming straight into the ground Kokabiel retracted his wings and threw away his cloak. Grinning to himself he summoned forth another Sword of Light. Deciding to enter the fray themselves, Kiba and Xenovia charged at Kokabiel preparing to strike. Koneko also charged behind them and jumped high in the air.

Xenovia jumped with her Holy-Sword raised over her head, prepared to cut Kokabiel in half. With a battle-cry, she brought her Durandal down, while Kiba came up to him from the side and prepared himself to slash off Kokabiel's head.

Smirking, the Fallen-Angel leader summoned a Sword of Light in his other hand and used them to block both attacks with ease. "Oh, what's more fun than Holy-Sword and Holy-Demonic Sword attacks at the same time?" Kokabiel taunted.

"…This." Koneko said as she appeared above him and was preparing to drop-kick Kokabiel from behind. Unfortunately, Kokabiel saw her coming from a mile away.

"Naïve!" Kokabiel muttered as he brought out his ten wings to counter her.

His black wings turned into sharp blades and cut up Koneko. Her body fell down to the ground, she had cuts around her skin, her uniform was completely torn away leaving her in just a Bra with the left breast exposed, panties that were barely held together and her shoes and socks, while blood came out of her injuries. Kiba turned his attention to his fallen comrade with concern.

"Koneko-chan!"

"Hey, looking away while fighting will easily get you killed!" Kokabiel amusingly warned him.

Kiba let his guard down because of the damage Koneko took, and Kokabiel's Sword of Light came at him.

GIIIIN!

"Wha…!" A crack appeared on the Holy-Demonic Sword. "Ku!" Kiba clicked his tongue.

The strength of the solidness depended on his state of mind. If he lost his concentration for a moment, then for that period of time, the strength and durability of his Sword will go down as well. Kokabiel made his move in that slight instant. Trying to take advantage of Kokabiel's diverted attention Xenovia tried to slash him with all her strength. Kokabiel simply used his Sword of Light and blocked her using one hand with it.

"Hmph! Durandal huh! Unlike the Excalibur that was already broken once, that light is the real thing! Buuuuut~!" Kokabiel had another evil looking grin on his face.

BOOOOOOM!

The air shook, and there was a buzzing sound that hurt the ears of anyone close by. Kokabiel emitted an airwave from his aura it and made Xenovia's body float. Then Kokabiel kicked Xenovia's stomach.

"Gaa!" Xenovia flew back with an anguished cry.

"It depends on the wielder." Kokabiel mocked her. "Girl! You still can't control Durandal! The previous wielder was someone who had unrivalled strength!"

Standing on their feet, Kiba and Xenovia readied themselves for another attack. But Kokabiel didn't take them serious and crossed his two Swords of Light together, he then slashed out and sending a massive "X" shaped energy slash of Holy-aura towards them with so much power it was tearing apart the ground beneath it. Xenovia and Kiba used their Swords to take the brunt of the attack and attempted to deflect it.

In the end, they pushed it back but were panting heavily from the strain. Kiba's Holy-Demonic sword. Xenovia's Durandal. He was taking on their attacks as if it was nothing. Even in terms of Swords, Kokabiel was above them. Kiba and Xenovia were helpless against the power that Kokabiel had at his finger-tips. Even though they somehow fixed their stance… Both of them were breathing hard.

Still, Kiba wouldn't give up.

"Kokabiel! It's not over yet!"

He put strength into his Holy-Demonic Sword and stood up again. The crack on the Sword disappeared and he went forward slashing towards the Cadre Fallen-Angel with no flaws.

"Hahaha! You still come at me? All right! Come!" Kokabiel smirked, releasing his Swords of Light.

Panting while running Kiba gathered his strength for his next move. "Sword… Birth!"

Several magic-circle appeared around Kokabiel and from each one of them a Holy-Demonic Sword appeared and launched themselves at Kokabiel. "You think you've captured me with this?" The ten wings of Kokabiel, who was smirking, started to become like hardened blades and began breaking the Holy-Demonic Swords around with ease. He then simply retracted his wings.

Rushing forward Kiba aimed his Sword of Betrayer towards Kokabiel head, but the enemy in question caught the Sword between his fingers using his other hand Kiba summoned another Holy-Demonic Sword and tried again, only for that one to be blocked as well.

"Give up yet?" The Fallen-Angel laughed.

"Never!" Kiba shouted determined.

Still unwilling to give in, Kiba summoned another magic-circle and brought out a third Holy-Demonic Sword which he carried with his teeth, the Knight then used it to slash outwards and cut Kokabiel across the face. Which from the looks of it, finally caused him some pain.

"You cut me?" Touching his face Kokabiel felt there was a single scratch on his cheek.

There was a bit of blood coming out of it. This angered him. Glaring at the blonde Swordsman he sent out a massive orb of Light at the Devil. Kiba was saved however thanks to Xenovia who appeared in front of him in time as slashed the orb of Light with Durandal. With her power, she was able to block the attack and with a mighty yell she brought out enough power to cut it, which made the orb vanish into Light particles.

Before Kokabiel could follow up though, Ren appeared in front of him and cocked back his fist while wrapping Touki around it. Soon Ren's fist was covered in a glowing white sphere of his own life-aura and bursting with pure power.

 _ **BIG BANG BLOW!**_

With a mighty yell, he punched his fist out at Kokabiel who used his forearm to block Ren's attack. Soon Kokabiel felt himself been pushing back by the force of Ren's Big Bang Blow and the strength behind it made him skid back a few feet.

"Ho, you can use Touki? How interesting." Kokabiel said, mildly impressed.

"You like that?" Ren then stretched out both his arms and aimed them at Kokabiel. "Then this'll really blow you away!"

 _ **CRIMSON HELL FLARE!**_

FLAAAAAME!

A tornado of fire burst out of Ren's arms, reducing the ground beneath it to nothing but ash and was heading on a straight course for Kokabiel. The flames were so heated they were a pure colour of Red, at a temperature so hot it was releasing a heatwave on the space behind Ren. Though this sacrificed some of the widths of the attack it increased the intensity. It was even hotter than Raiser's Phenex flame.

At yet, to everyone's shock, Kokabiel just held out both his hand and took the attack head-on. He gathers some Light-energy in his hands and was able to stop the attack from moving any further while his expression changed to one sadism and dread. "Interesting! Interesting indeed! Completely different than the rest!"

"Grr…" Ren grit his teeth, struggling to push the flames forward.

This was his mightiest attack and he knew he needed to squeeze out every bit of strength he had to make it work. But despite his struggle, Kokabiel didn't some to be worried at all. It was as if he was completely convinced that there was no way Ren could bring out enough power to push him back. Though judging from their expressions, it wasn't hard to see why.

The Holy-aura surrounding Kokabiel's hands grew stronger and formed to create a beam of Light that started to push through Ren's fire. Struggling with every all his might, Ren focused his magic and heated his flames so much that they became white in colour at the base where his hands were, however at the cost of width. Though this was the extra push he need push back Kokabiel's Light.

Unfortunately, Kokabiel grew bored of this power struggle and power up his Light beam to its maximum. When that happened Kokabiel's Light cut through Ren's attack like butter and was heading straight for him. Ren understood that he couldn't afford to get hit by the incoming attack.

"I don't have the power to push it back." Ren bit his lip. "No choice then…"

In that instant, the pupils in Ren's eyes became silt.

BOOOOOOOOM!

 **Music Off**

Once the beam of Light hit after cutting past all the flames. It created a massive explosion that consumed Ren and everything around him. The ground shook, a shockwave was released knocking every one of their feet and there was a large cloud of dust where the Light hit. It was the same result as when Kokabiel had first used that large Spear of Light at the start of the battle.

"Ren!" Rias shouted in worry.

"REN-SAN!" Asia cried out horrified with tears in her eyes.

Everyone held their breath, not knowing what to think. Other than the thought that this battle had claimed its first casualty. When the dust started to clear everyone looked in fear while Kokabiel looked with dark humor, they all thought they would see the corpse or remains of the one hit by the attack. Instead, once the dust cleared they all saw something that surprised most of them and made Koneko's blood go cold.

Ren stood there breathing heavily and a bit shaken but barely injured. Surrounding his body was a barrier, similar to a magic-barrier that Rias and most other Devils use to defend themselves from attacks. But Ren's barrier was made purely from Senjutsu. Not just that, what surprised everyone was Ren's appearance. Ren's eye pupils become slit-like a wolf's, his teeth sharpen a bit looking like fangs, and the biggest changes of all were two scruffy animal ears appeared on his head and a scruffy tail popped out from behind him.

Ren was now in his Youkai form.

No one knew what to say, they didn't know whether to be surprised about Ren's appearance of the fact that he survived Kokabiel's attack. Those who already knew about Ren were surprised as they didn't think he would reveal himself now of all times, those who didn't already know were shocked as they never expected Ren to anything besides a human. Koneko had a third reaction, just looking at Ren's aura made it hard for her to stop trembling.

Shirou just watched, not planning on doing anything until he was finished powering up. Though he was curious to see what would happen next.

Oddly enough, it was Kokabiel who broke the silence.

"A Youkai is it?" He questioned. "I'm surprised I'll admit, I never expected to see one in a Devils territory. But tell me how you withstood my attack."

"Truth is I almost didn't, but I was able to survive thanks to my Senjutsu. I used it to create a barrier." Ren explained. "Devils and other beings with magic use that magic to create protective barriers around themselves to act as shields. But Senjutsu is stronger than any ordinary magic and a lot more potent. So by using it to create and barrier instead, the defensive power was much tougher. It helped that I was also strong enough to pull it off. If I had been weaker, my barrier would have been pierced and I would've died, fortunately that wasn't the case."

 _"A Senjutsu-barrier?"_ Rias was shocked at the very idea. _"I never knew there was such a concept."_

However, her attention was directed elsewhere after she heard the sound of Koneko falling to her knees. With a crestfallen look on her face. "…S-Senjutsu…" Koneko stuttered in a manner that suggested she was stricken with fear.

"What's wrong with her?" Asia asked concerned.

Akeno looked down upset and averted her gaze. "It's Koneko-chan's trauma."

Rias went over to Koneko and wrapped her arms around her while kneeling beside her. "Koneko, calm down. It's all right."

"…B-But." Her tone and expression didn't change.

"I know how you must feel, but try to understand. That's Ren, our friend and someone who's fighting to save our town." Rias reasoned, trying to help her Rook. "Even if you can't stop yourself from feeling this way completely, at least try to hold together until this is over. You know he's not the same as "That person"."

Koneko looked up surprised and slowly stopped trembling. Then after a brief moment, she got back up to her feet and spoke in a quiet tone. "…I'll try."

Ren who was watching that exchange felt a mixture of confusion and curiosity. _"Wonder what that's all about?"_

"Hahahaha! Kahahahahahahahaha!" Everyone's attention went back to Kokabiel who laughed loudly. "The surprises never seem to stop with you people! The Holy-Demonic Sword, the daughter of Barakiel and now a Youkai!" He stopped laughing and directed his gaze at Ren. "Tell me, whose side are you on? The Gremory family, Sirzechs, or Rias Gremory herself?"

"None of the above." Ren immediately replied. "I have no interest in the affairs of Devils or any of the Trinity Factions for that matter." He then glared at Kokabiel. "The only side I'm on is the side of the Red Dragon Emperor, Shirou Tsukiharu. And that means that any enemy of his is my enemy too."

Those who didn't know about Ren before were a little surprised to hear that statement, while those who did know simply smiled because they knew he truly meant those words. Regardless of Race or Species, those two were friends, and that was always enough reason in their eyes considering how they know, Shirou wouldn't consider just anyone a friend.

Kokabiel just laughed more. "Hahahaha! You've sided with the Red Dragon?! It's true that the Red Dragon and the White Dragon are known to have a strange knack for attracting others to them. But honestly, what difference does it make when you couldn't accomplish a thing?" He taunted. "All your power used up, and you couldn't even give me a mild burn."

Ren smirked. "I couldn't accomplish a thing? I wouldn't say that." He argued. "Notice anyone missing?"

Confused by his words, Kokabiel along with the Gremory Peerage looked and were shocked by a sudden occurrence. On that moment a large black magic-circle appeared beneath Kokabiel's feet that was glowing and ready to activate. Kokabiel's eyes widened in disbelief. "What?!"

Meanwhile, high in the sky was Mika who was getting ready to cast the spell. Appeared in her hands was a large, pitch-black magic circle in front of her while her arms and her body was wrapped in a blackish-purple magical aura that was wrapping itself thickly around her body. Even her eyes were glowing purple.

Among all of them, Ren was the only one that knew what was going on. This was one of Mika's strategies. While everyone goes in for a group assault on Kokabiel she would gain distance and prepare a Black Magic spell, but it would only work if her presence on the battlefield was forgotten during period of time she was preparing the spell. Mika has an incredible presence from being both a powerful Magician and her overall personality.

However, she knew of a way to hide that presence and that was Ren. The assault of the Gremory group along with Xenovia who continuously went on the offensive against Kokabiel was already a distraction. That followed by an assault by the already proven to be strong Ren who hit Kokabiel with his strongest attack that forced a power struggle was enough to grab everyone's attention, so much so that Mika's existence on the battlefield was almost completely forgotten. That gave her all the time she needed to ready her Black Magic spell.

 _ **ABYSS MAELSTROM!**_

By those words, the spell was unleashed. It was a spell that shook everyone around it. The massive magic-circle in Mika's hands fired off a Pitch Black beam of death soaring towards the ground. It was a great and massive beam, three times the size of the magic-circle, and the magic-circle beneath Kokabiel was a target that the attack was aiming for, and soon hit. like an abyss of darkness that would consume everything.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

Like an abyss of darkness that would consume everything. A devastating blast tore the earth asunder, completely consuming the foe of the one who had cast the spell. It only damaged the earth within the circle, anything out the circle was untouched. But the attack itself sent out a whirlwind so strong everyone struggled to not be blown away. Mika just floated there with her arms outstretched and a cold look in her eyes.

She slowly hovered to the ground and joined the others, waiting to see the result of the Black Magic spell.

After a few seconds, the Maelstrom cleared and standing at the center of where the spell hit, or in this case floating was a Black feathery cocoon that was glowing in a Golden Light and when the cocoon unravelled, it was revealed to be Kokabiel who protected himself by wrapping his wings around his body. Though there was a small streak of blood dripping from his mouth.

"That was close." He muttered with a smirk.

"Are you kidding me!?" Mika shouted, fed up at this point.

"Black Magic?" Kokabiel said intrigued as he wiped the blood off. "Not once did I ever expect a Devil from this town to possess such High-Level magic. Given your lineage though I shouldn't be to surprised. But still, it wasn't enough to stop me."

"That spell can kill even an Ultimate-Class Devil if done perfectly. How did you get out so unscathed?" Mika demanded an answer, choosing to ignore the line about her lineage. "Answer me!"

"I just happen to be lucky, on the fact that I actually fought a user of Black Magic once before." Kokabiel revealed, surprising everyone. "It may seem hard to believe to all of you, considering how rare it is for Devils or Magicians to master Black Magic, but I lived through the Great-War and have faced all kinds of enemies. Thanks to that I learned how to counter Black Magic. The method is actually quite simple, Black Magic can be nullified by Holy-aura. All you need is to wrap it around your body to kill the Black Magic's effect." He explained. "But the catch is you need to have more aura than the spell magic. The difference in our power is why your spell amounted to nothing."

Mika clicked her tongue in annoyance. "This is why I hate making a strategy with missing information. It always leads to an oversight."

"Still even I have to admit that was dangerous." Kokabiel said seriously. "If you were to have you power multiplied by the Welsh Dragon and fire another spell like that, I might actually be in trouble. Maybe I should end this already."

"Too bad, but it's too late for that."

Everyone turned and to most of their relief, Shirou approached signifying he was finally done powering up. As he walked up to the Occult Research Club members, he noticed the injured and rough state they were in and smirked.

"Hey what happened? I thought you were going to finish this before I was done." Shirou taunted.

Rias looked down, disappointed in herself. "Forgive me Shirou, I had hoped we could have at least worn him out and deliver Kokabiel to you in a condition that would have been more ideal. But in the end we couldn't accomplish anything and now all we can do is rely on you to do everything."

"What's wrong with that?" Shirou asked looking unconcerned. "All other enemies are gone and now I've just gotta beat the boss, that's just business as usual. "So I'll say it again. Leave this one to me."

Shirou then started walking towards the Fallen-Angel leader. Everyone watched, content to leave the fate of this battle to him. Rias simply watched him go, even though she was worried, she didn't think he would lose. Rias believed she could trust him, that Shirou could like he had many times before, turn this despair into hope.

Shirou stood in front of Kokabiel, staring the intimidating Cadre down with unwavering eyes.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Shirou said, not feeling pressured.

"You certainly took your time, let's hope it was worth it." Kokabiel taunted. "After facing the rest I at least hope you can provide me with some real entertainment."

Shirou had a smile that wasn't like his usual smirk. It was more like the smile of a lurking predator who was a second away from devouring its prey without the prey even knowing the danger it was in. Shirou could never get enough of this feeling.

"I don't mind entertaining you. If you can afford to take it that easy." Shirou held up the Boosted Gear. "At this point, I don't even think I could think of a way to stop me!"

 **[EXPLOSION!]**

 **Play OST - Dragon Ball Z - Vegeta Super Saiyan Theme**

FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

The jewel on the Boosted Gear glowed brighter than before and then an emerald-green pillar of light shot up towards the sky. Everyone on the field could feel the enormous, outrageous power that was bursting from Shirou like an erupting volcano. The ground beneath his started to crack and there was seem magnitude that vibrated the battlefield. The power radiating from Shirou surrounded his body like a violent flame and even though his appearance was the same, he felt completely different.

His Demonic-power was on a completely different level than before. It was like the air itself was ripe with power. That the person standing in front of Kokabiel was a Devil of the highest calibre that commanded power so great, with just a wave on his hand everyone would be reduced to dust. Shirou roared at the top of his lungs and the aura shot outwards creating an impact that was like the aftershock of a powerful explosion that blew everything away. Once that was done the aura vanishes, trapping it all inside of him and now he was ready to fight.

The Fallen-Angel leader laughed when he felt that power as if he was truly enjoying it. His expression was coloured in ecstasy. He was feeling…pleasure for battle.

"Fuhahaha! Good! That flow of Demonic-power! The Demonic-power I can feel right now is that of an Ultimate-Class Devil. No, it's actually stepped over the limit of Ultimate-Class and reached the level of Satan, Red Dragon Emperor! Looks like you truly are the only one who's good enough to fight me! It's almost as exciting as fighting Sirzechs!"

Rias watched with so much shock she almost forgot to breathe.

 _"Can it be true? Has Shirou truly reached the of a Satan, like my Brother?"_

Through Kokabiel's madness, Shirou just looked at him as if he was in deep thought.

 **Music Off**

Which made him ask.

"Hey, did you really fight Sirzechs?"

Kokabiel's expression didn't change. "Of course I did! That battle was one of my most exciting and enjoyable memories from the Great-War!"

"Hmm, that's weird." Shirou whispered.

Despite what others might believe, Shirou didn't consider his current power to rival that of Sirzechs. He believed in his strength without a doubt but that didn't mean he was blind too hard facts. He knew firsthand how powerful Sirzechs was from his display of power back at the after-party in the Underworld. His power was like an insurmountable mountain that he dreamed of overcoming and he doubted that was even his 100%. Reaching that level was something he would strive to reach every day.

That's why he knew this current power wasn't at that level.

That's also way Shirou found this to be strange. If Kokabiel truly did fight Sirzechs as he claimed, why does he not realize that fact. Not to mention if he also fought God and The Devil Kings of old, then why is Shirou's current power so amazing to him. Shirou was arrogant, but not to the extent where he would believe the current him was _that_ strong. So it just seemed weird to him.

But he would worry about those details later. For now, he had a fight to win.

Shirou planted his feet firmly on the ground and readied himself to dash forward. Kokabiel prepared himself ready to take whatever attack Shirou would try.

Or so he thought.

 **Play OST - Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 - Twist Of Fate**

BOOOOOOOOM!

The spot where Shirou was standing exploded in a burst of dirt and dust and the Devil in question had suddenly vanished. Suddenly a strange noise was heard while a strong blast of wind blew past Kokabiel.

"What was that?" Kokabiel asked confused.

Without knowing, Shirou was now right behind Kokabiel with his fist cocked back and his face having his usual smirk.

"That was me, breaking the sound barrier." Shirou answered.

The second he heard that voice Kokabiel turned around, just in time to have Shirou fist smash right into his check was a textbook perfect Straight-Right. The punched knocked Kokabiel back while Shirou went to follow up by drawing Dyrnwyn and going to slice Kokabiel. Kokabiel regained his footing and summoned a Sword of Light that he used to clash with Shirou's Holy-Sword. The two put pressure on their respective weapons, trying to overpower the other.

Kokabiel smirked before bringing out a pair of his wings towards Shirou, only for Shirou to easily dodge them. As soon as Shirou moved out of the way, six magic-circles appeared around Kokabiel as they shot out six blasts of Crimson lasers. Though wasn't as skilled a Magician as Mika, the teaching he got from Akeno these past few weeks made him confident in his ability to use it in battle.

This attack surprised Kokabiel as he used his wings to narrowly push himself out of the range of the attack. Still, the fact that he had to dodge at all showed everyone that he considered Shirou attacking power a threat. Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Shirou quickly followed with another attack and he stretched his left hand at Kokabiel and summoned another magic-circle.

 _ **DRAGON THUNDER STREAM!**_

Shirou generates Lightning in his arm and releases it in a concentrated, destructive blast, capable of destroying everything in a wide area in front of him. It was several times larger than to one he used at the Underworld. But Kokabiel summoned a large Spear of Light and hurled it at the Lightning attack, causing both to mutually explode without reaching either of their users.

"Hahahaha! Come on Welsh Dragon! You can do better than that!" Kokabiel taunted as he spread his wings out once again. He brought his right hand forward as he summoned another Sword of Light and flapped his wings to push himself forward. Shirou changed his stance to a more rigid one as Kokabiel tried to land a vertical strike, only for it to be easily blocked by Shirou as he gripped his blade harder. The two clashed while Kokabiel had a look of glee and Shirou had a stern expression.

Suddenly, Shirou powered himself up by unleashing his own Touki and using it to increase his strength. This extra power allowed Shirou's Dyrnwyn that shatter Kokabiel's Swords of Light and come down on his abdominal. Kokabiel reacted seconds too late as the blade pierced his left abdomen. Kokabiel staggered backwards as he grunted in pain. He glanced at the wound before he looked back up with an angry expression.

 ** _DRAGON FORCE STRIKER!_**

Unfortunately, Shirou didn't plan on letting him rest and immediately went back on the offensive. Using his right fist he punched Kokabiel in his Solar Plexus with his full body weight behind the blow. Kokabiel coughed out saliva and blood and the force of the attack sent him flying backwards, eventually making him crash into the school building. The building shook as a big hole formed in the wall with parts of rubble falling onto him.

Xenovia and the Occult Research Club members all watched in shock as Shirou was fighting on par with an enemy they could barely scratch altogether. Kokabiel was an opponent that they believed could only be stopped by someone like Sirzechs or Michael. And yet, Shirou wasn't just holding his own, he seemed to have the upper hand. Suddenly a Spear of Light flew out from the hole straight towards Shirou.

Shirou brought up his Sword and easily whacked the Spear away. He then waited to see wait his adversary would try next. This came in the form of Kokabiel who burst out the building like a speeding bullet and attempted a sharp kick at Shirou's stomach. Shirou counterattacked by stepped forward and waiving past the kick, followed by hitting Kokabiel in the face with a Right-Cross Counter.

Though Kokabiel had great power, it was becoming apparent that Shirou vastly outclassed him Technique-wise. Both Kokabiel and Shirou then spread their wings and flew upwards, planning to continue fighting in the sky. Kokabiel created a large orb of Holy-energy and hurled it at Shirou. Shirou himself gathered his Demonic-power and let loose a blast to counter Kokabiel. The two powers collided upon impact and created an explosion.

After that explosion Shirou shot forward and thrust Dyrnwyn forward, Kokabiel used a Spear of Light to block his strike. Shirou kept cutting and slashing at Kokabiel, who kept blocking his blade. Until finally, Dyrnwyn shattered Kokabiel's Spear. Then surprisingly enough though, Shirou brought his weapon back and threw it up high in the air. Kokabiel was confused but didn't have time to consider it as Shirou now coated his arms in Touki and lashed out at him with a barrage of punches. Kokabiel wrapped his wings around his body to shield himself, but Shirou's punches packed enough force to knock him back.

Kokabiel then harden his wings and slashed them out like blades. Though Shirou was able to manoeuvre past them and get behind Kokabiel, once there he held up his and at that moment Dyrnwyn landed in his grip. With that, he spun around and smashed the blunt end of his Sword into the back of Kokabiel's neck. He then finished by gathering his Demonic-power and fired it at his temporary stun enemy.

 _ **DRAGON BLAST!**_

The blast completely consumed the Red-eyed madman's body and came crashing down towards the ground, and it hit with a strong crushing force and impact that would have killed any lesser Fallen-Angel. Kokabiel however lived and got back up looking more pissed off than hurt. Though still hurt nonetheless. Shirou himself landed back on the ground and retracted his wings.

 **Music Off**

Kokabiel sent him a glare. "What kind of game are you playing, why did you hit me with the blunt end of your blade?" He asked angrily. "That was a golden opportunity to cut the back of my neck and kill me, are so big of a fool that you didn't take it?"

Shirou's expression was like that of someone who was asked a question that had an obvious answer.

"You really want me to explain it?" Shirou droned before he shrugged. "Fine, it's because I know your type. You're the type of person that doesn't fight with honed Technique or skill, instead you fight more like a wild animal. By that I mean you have extremely strong wild instinct and a beast's sense. Those types are always a pain to deal with because with them, landing the killing blow is always a chore."

"And what does that mean?" Kokabiel narrowed his eyes.

"Because you're like a wild beast, and you've survived a war, you've probably fought to the death plenty of times and because of that you can feel someone's killing intent." Shirou continued. "So if I did go for the kill back then, your beast-like danger senses would have felt my killing intent and you would react without thinking, probably resulting in you dodging the attack or counterattacking. Either one was an option."

"I'm actually quite impressed you can figure all that out in the short time you had." Kokabiel taunted him with mocking praise. "You're correct that I can feel killing intent, and because of that you attacked without intending to kill to hit my by surprise and land some damage at least. Fuhahaha! But more than that, the fact that a child like you would be experienced enough to be able to distinguish between warriors who use instinct over Technique. Have you faced one before?"

"Don't talk down to me you geezer." Shirou responded, his eyes narrowed. "I've been in more fights to the death for longer than you might think possible." Shirou then stretched his neck a bit. "Besides I'm the one who's impressed. How the hell did someone like you survive fighting Sirzechs?"

Gone was Kokabiel's amused expression, replacing was one of murderous intent. "You had best watch what you say." He warned him. "You're nothing but a sideshow to me if I so wanted I could reduce you and this town to nothing."

"So you say." Shirou wasn't intimidated in the least. "And yet I'm obviously the one in control of this fight. Even you can see I can't lose if we keep going at this rate."

Kokabiel then raised his arm and pointed it at Shirou. "Then why don't I prove it? Let's make this interesting."

Shirou raised a brow. "Meaning?"

"A simple power struggle, we both blast out as much power as we can at each other and let them clash." Kokabiel elaborated. "Whoever is stronger will naturally be the winner and obviously the loser will die."

"A beam struggle, what Era do you think this is?" Shirou asked sarcastically. "Fine, let's get it over with."

Rias who heard what Kokabiel suggested became worried, and that only increased when Shirou agreed to it.

"Shirou don't!" Rias protested. "You can't take that kind of risk!"

"Wait Rias." Mika stopped her. "This might actually be a good idea."

"But he already has the upper-hand, he doesn't need to go along with this." Rias reasoned. "Wouldn't it be better to just beat Kokabiel with Technique and avoid being reckless?"

"The fact that he's doing it because he has too!" Mika argued. "You seem to be forgetting we have a time-limit, both on his power up and this battle. If Big Bro can't beat Kokabiel before his power resets then we're all doomed and if no one beats Kokabiel before that magic-circle Balba made goes off, this whole town is doomed." She begrudgingly reminded her. "If this works he can beat Kokabiel faster, all we can do is watch and have faith."

Rias wanted to protest but knew that what Mika was saying was right, all she could do was be frustrated in herself for not being able to do anything else. Not surprisingly Mika felt the same way.

Back with the fight, the two combatants extended their arms and started to gather their magic-power. For Kokabiel there was a large Yellow, almost Golden orb of Light growing in the palm of his hand. Shirou was doing the same, holding his own orb of power, though he was completely Red. Matching the colour of his gauntlet. Both of them kept gathering more and more power until the orbs in their hands were wide enough to cover the top half of their bodies.

And with that, they fired at the same time.

When that critical moment came where the tide of battle would shift. Both of them let out a strong battle-cry and their attacks were discharged in the form of beams. Shirou's was Red, with a Green outline that was vast and intense, accompanied by greater strength from all of Shirou's Boosts, due to its tremendous strength and force it destroyed the ground beneath it. Kokabiel released a similar blast only it was Golden, with purple sparks around its surface. In the blink of an eye, both beams collided.

CLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

Shirou's Demonic-power and Kokabiel's Holy-energy now fought strongly against each other in a struggle for dominance. Their powers burst and were wildly clashing, generating more gusts of wind, an invisible energy field and vibrating shockwaves into the atmosphere, which crushed the battlefield even more. Shirou knew Kokabiel's attack had to be stopped if he were to be hit by that much Holy-energy. He would be reduced to nothing.

But suddenly, in the middle of this struggle, Shirou smirked. Because he was only using one hand to hold onto his attack, Shirou pointed his other hand towards the ground, channelling his mana through his Sacred Gear and into the soil. It travelled across the field beneath the beam struggle making its way to its target. Soon a magic-circle appeared where his mana stopped, a red line of energy tracing from it into the earth.

It stopped right behind Kokabiel with him even noticing. From there it activated and a red magic blast shot out, hitting Kokabiel in the back, along with getting his attention and making him turn his head.

"Augh! What?"

Kokabiel muttered in surprise and confuse at the sudden burst of pain that come from behind. Unfortunately for him, this was just what Shirou was hoping for.

"AAARGH!"

After Shirou let out a piercing roar and his Demonic-power instantly grew to an even greater size, more power and superior to Kokabiel's overwhelming blast of Holy-energy. Shirou's beam suddenly pushed Kokabiel attack back by giant steps. It was now being warded off and deflected greatly. This shocked the Cadre Fallen-Angel, even more so was the fact that he couldn't stop it. He couldn't do anything but watch his power be blown away by the power of a Low-Class Devil.

"DAMN YOU!" Kokabiel screeched in disbelief and rage.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Once the beam hit it detonated upon impact causing a bright light to form into an explosion. The blinding light and force of the shockwave created a great wind that blowing every direction. The spot where the attack hit was the center of it all and Kokabiel who was standing there took the full force of this destruction, without any kind of protection. Standing still and watching the explosion was Shirou with a pleased and satisfied look on his face.

Rias looked on with amazement. She almost could believe that Shirou actually bested Kokabielin a power struggle. "Amazing."

"It's more than that." Mika said getting her attention. "It was a brilliant plan."

"Plan?" Rias asked, not getting it.

"I'm sure to some it looked like he just overpowered Kokabiel, but there was more to it than that." Mika explained. "Rather than using all his power, Kokabiel just used what he believed was enough to kill Big Bro, and he in-turn matched that power. But Big Bro never planned on playing Kokabiel's game. While they were struggling he used his free arm to channel magic through the ground and create a spell to hit Kokabiel in the back."

"What?" Rias was now surprised. "Are you saying Shirou intended on doing that from the beginning?"

"That's right. Because it was the perfect time to do it. While the plan is actually simple, the hard part is actually pulling it off." Mika elaborated. "He had to make sure that used just enough power to match Kokabiel and make sure that he got the timing just right. Once the shot in the back hit, he would push out more Demonic-power and push back the Holy-energy, plus since Kokabiel lost his concentration for a moment his power became unstable and he couldn't fix it in time. It was the best-laid battle-plan" She then smiled. "But then, that's what he's best at."

 _"Both a Power-Type and a Technique-Type. One who is extremely skilled in both. Just like Yuuto said."_ Rias thought back, before feeling assured. _"He can do it, Shirou can definitely win this battle."_

The smoke cloud that formed after the explosion began to clear and out from it. Kokabiel stood after being overwhelmed, he was left breathing heavily, some of his outfit was tattered especially the sleeve around the arm that held the beam he fired. And most of all, that same arm was now burnt and damaged, so much so that Kokabiel was gripping it tightly.

"He's still standing?" Akeno said shocked and worried.

"No, look at his arm." Kiba pointed out. "It's definitely severely injured."

"Then this fights over." Ren said confidently. "Not even he stands a chance against Shirou with only one arm."

While gripping his arm, Kokabiel grit his teeth in both frustration and pure anger.

"You bastard." Kokabiel sneered. "That was a dirty trick."

"You really think that means anything here, this is war." Shirou brushed off, not feeling as though he did anything wrong. "If anything it's your own fault for falling for it, Mr Veteran. Besides, when I fight there is no fair or unfair, there's only victory or defeat."

Those words only fuelled Kokabiel's anger. The fact that he was who was a being that survived the Great War between God and the previous Satans was being lectured by a boy still in Highschool. "I should have known someone from "that bloodline" would be a nuisance."

"Okay fuss up." Shirou said now irritated. "Why do you keep saying things like lineage or that bloodline whenever me or Mika is involved?" He questioned. "Did you know our parents or something."

On those words Kokabiel's expression changed from hatred to amusement, it was like he was just told a funny joke and couldn't contain his laughter. "Fuhaha, fuhahahahahahahahahaha! That's right! I totally forgot! You wouldn't know would you?!"

Shirou was not amused. "Apparently not, so why not enlighten me."

"Hahaha, very well then. This might actually be fun." Kokabiel stopped laughing and pointed towards Mika. "Tell me, what do the two of you know about your parents."

 **Play OST - Shiki - Memento Mori**

"Hmm? They were two of the most powerful warriors of the Vatican, The Slash Empress and Heavenly Sorcerer. Both were prodigies in Swordplay and Magic respectively and could rival a Cadre-Class Angel." Mika answered, confused about where this was going. "After getting together they left the Church while being branded as heretics, and returned to their homeland of Japan to start a family. Thus giving birth to us."

"Fuhaha, yes that's as far as most people know. But there's more to it than that." Kokabiel informed them. "Specifically, didn't any of you find it odd?"

"Find what odd?" Rias questioned, not liking this."

"Obviously, their growth rate." Kokabiel answered. "Their parents were as strong as Cadre Angels yes, but that was while they were adults. And yet their children who haven't been Devils for even half a year are now able to use the Boosted Gear well enough to reach Maou-level strength and use Black Magic which takes years to master. Even for the offspring of two prodigies, didn't that even seem strange to you?"

Those in the Gremory Peerage suddenly felt as though they had to agree with that statement. Ever since they first joined the Peerage everyone felt doubt that those two siblings could have just been ordinary humans, not just Shirou but Mika as well. They both grew so strong so fast that it shouldn't have made sense. They assumed that after learning who their parents were, the mystery was answered. But Kokabiel seems to be saying otherwise. The ones who were most interested in knowing what he had to say were Shirou and Mika themselves.

"While it is true that the Heavenly Sorcerer was born with a great talent for Magic. The main reason you two grow at such a fast rate is because of the bloodline from your mother's side." Kokabiel continued his revelation. "The fact is Mikoto Tsukiharu is a special case, Tsukiharu is the name she got after marrying the Heavenly Sorcerer, not one she was born with. In truth, she is actually a direct descendant of a powerful warrior whose name was feared by many. In fact, you could say he was a prodigy among prodigies. Want to know his name?"

Shirou glared. "What was it?"

Kokabiel smirked before he answered. "He was someone who was a very large figure among the Catholics. A rebel who once shook this entire Island nation to its core. He commanded many followers of God, ones who all flocked to him and heralded to be both their saviour and messiah because of his great talent and charisma even at a young age. And his name was, Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada!"

Those words created a shockwave of a revelation that was set through everyone, as Rias, Akeno, Kiba, Asia, Koneko, Xenovia and Ren were all put in a state of complete and total shock and disbelief. None were more shocked than the Tsukiharu siblings who were so still, it was like they were frozen. It was like believing you knew the answer to a question you spent so much time searching for, only for someone else to tell you that the answer was incomplete.

"…Wh-What?" Rias couldn't find the words.

"Shirōu Amakusa?" Asia asked shock clearly in her eyes. "I've heard that name, he was considered to be a Japanese folk Saint by Catholics a very long time ago."

"It's more than just that." Rias spoke up. "Shirōu Amakusa was born 400 years ago as the son of Catholic parents, in late 16th century Japan. By the age of 15, he was a charismatic youth that was known to his Japanese Catholic followers as "Heaven's messenger" and had a gathering of over 40,000 believers. Miraculous powers were attributed to him at a young age which is why many thought he was chosen by God." She then glared at Kokabiel hatefully. "But what you're saying is absurd, there's no way he could have a descendant, he died at the age of 17!"

"Hahahahaha! Of course, you don't know anything, it's a fact only known by those with real power, you grunts at the bottom only know what they tell you." Kokabiel mocked her while laughing. "The truth is there are many such cases like this, most of the human Heroes you read about in legends have descendants themselves, and many of them are from the same generation as you!"

Rias couldn't believe what she was hearing, if that was true then what Kokabiel was saying wouldn't be impossible. But that was also something she couldn't believe to be true. It was all too much to believe.

"Then, Shirou-Kun is one of those Heroes descendants?" Kiba asked, shocked himself.

"And it's the same for Mika?" Akeno added.

"That's right. Before his demise, Shirōu Amakusa bared a child that just so happened to survive even after his death." Kokabiel continued, find humour in their shock. "And through many centuries his lineage continued unbeknownst to many. And as fortune would have it, everyone who inherited his blood also inherited his Miraculous powers, in other words talent."

"Then you're saying that's where Shirou and Mika's talent comes from?" Rias questioned.

"That's correct, All those from his lineage have been born as great prodigies in any field they specialise in, there has never been an exception. His child was a gifted Swordsman, his grandchild was a gifted Martial Artist. Every one of them were born with greatness." Kokabiel continued. "But, there was also a dark side to this inheritance. One that could be called a curse."

"A curse? What do you mean?" Akeno asked.

"Shirōu Amakusa died carrying many regrets and hatred and so after death, his Soul remained, it then travelled to a new vessel. His new vessel was his own child." Kokabiel answered. "And from then on, every following generation he moves from one descendant to the next and makes them his vessel, while waiting for the chance to possess their body as his own, all so he could live once again."

Now everyone was not only shocked but horrified as well. All of this was sounding worse the more they heard.

"No, are you saying that… his current vessel is Shirou?" Rias asked afraid.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. The Red Dragon Emperor is Shirōu Amakusa's current vessel. The proof is his Silver-hair." Kokabiel pointed out. "In every generation, if more than one child is born, while they all inherit great talent, the one who is born to be the next vessel is born with Sliver-hair. Just like how his previous vessel the Slash Empress had Silver-hair."

"That still doesn't answer the most important part." This time Xenovia spoke out. "Why was his descendant a part of the Vatican, if the fact that his bloodline was unknown then how did the Church have it?!"

"That's the best part." Kokabiel answered. "After a short while, Heaven discovered the existence of Shirōu Amakusa's surviving bloodline and sent them to the Vatican as a way to protect the current generation from those who would try to destroy them. But the Church had other plans, they would use Shirōu Amakusa's descendants and the power they had to strengthen their own forces. Generation after generating they raised them to be groomed into being powerful weapons to be used by the Church is secret. Never letting them leave the Church and never teaching them anything besides what they can do for the Church. And when the time came, they had them bear a child with another follower of God and continue this cycle. Hahahaha, it was like they were breeding stock."

Xenovia's eyes widened at this revelation. "The Church did that? No, then how—?"

"How is was the Slash Empress known, you ask?" Kokabiel interrupted her, knowing what she was thinking. "At that point in time the Church had gained someone else to work in the shadows, plus they wanted to flaunt their power a bit more after becoming desperate. So they used her more openly as a way to make the world more aware of the strength of the Church. But that ended up backfiring when she chose to leave the Church, along with the Heavenly Sorcerer."

"Desperate?" Now Rias became confused. "Why would the Church become desperate?"

"Well. Seeing that they lost the master they served just like you Devils, the followers of God could barely function even to this day." Kokabiel answered, only confusing them further.

"…What do you mean?"

Xenovia asked with doubt. Now somewhat scared.

Kokabiel started laughing aloud as if he found it truly amusing. "Fuhaha, fuhahahahahahahahahaha! That's right! This truth wasn't revealed to you lower guys either! Well, considering I've already started, I will tell you all the rest. In the war between the Three Factions, not only the Four Great Devil Kings but also God died!"

…

…

…

…

…

Everyone, there was shocked and couldn't believe what he just said. But unlike the last bombshell, this once shocked them into silence. You could practically hear a pin drop from how silent it was.

"…God doesn't exist any more?" Xenovia spoke in disbelief as if she was in a trance. "No…that can't be… It is impossible…"

"It's normal for you guys to not know about it. Who can say that God has died? Humans are an incomplete bunch. Without God, they cannot control their hearts and obey the laws, you know? Even us, the Fallen-Angels, and Devils couldn't tell this to those below us." Kokabiel explained. "You won't know where the information about God will be leaked from. Even among the Three-powers, only the people at the top and certain people know about it. Though it seems Balba noticed it earlier."

"G-God's dead?" Rias asked with the same amount of disbelief, though she seemed to have more doubt. "No, you're lying! I never heard anything about! Unlike the what you told us before this involves all Three Great powers, there's no way I couldn't have heard!"

"Yes, there is." Mika spoke getting everyone's attention. "Even if you're the Devil Kings sister you weren't born in the same Era, more than 100 years separates you two. Because he was on the battlefield himself he would obviously know, and they would also know how dangerous that kind of information would be." She spoke with a quiet tone, still coming to terms with all this new information. "Naturally everyone at the time had to make sure it stayed a secret and that meant not telling anyone, not even their families and especially not the young."

"…Mika." Rias spoke, worried out her state of mind.

"She's absolutely correct." Kokabiel continued. "After the War, what was left were the Angels who had lost their God, the Devils that lost their Maou and the majority of High-Class Devils and the Fallen-Angels who lost most of the Fallen-Angels apart from the leaders. So it wasn't a mere exhausted state. All of the Factions fell so low, that they had to rely on humans to continue their generations. Especially the Angels and Fallen-Angels that could only continue their generation by mating with humans. Fallen-Angels can increase if the Angels fall. But pure-Angels can't increase their numbers after losing God. Even pure-Devils are rare, right?"

"…Lies…it's a lie…"

Xenovia seemed like she started losing strength. She had a panicked expression that was too unbearable to look at. The active believer. God's servant. A person who lived by serving God as her mission. If the existence of God was rejected and she lost the means to live, it would be natural to become like that.

"The truth is that another War wouldn't happen unless you do it on purpose. It means that all Three-Factions went through hell in the past War. Everyone decided that it was meaningless to continue having a war if the start of it all, God and the Maou, were dead. Even that bastard Azazel declared that "there is no second war" after losing the majority of his men in the war! It's hard to bear! IT TRULY IS HARD TO BEAR! TO LOWER YOUR GUN ONCE YOU ALREADY SHOT IT!? DON'T FUCK AROUND! DON'T FUCK AROUND! IF WE CONTINUED ON FROM THERE, WE COULD HAVE WON!" Kokabiel declared strongly, his expression distorted into that of a mindless beast that was thirsty for blood. "EVEN SO, HE...! IS THERE ANY VALUE IN FALLEN-ANGELS WHO CAN ONLY LIVE BY INVITING HUMANS WHO POSSESS SACRED GEARS!?"

Throughout all his madness and ranting, everyone was paying more attention to the first thing he said and trying to let the information completely sink in. Especially Asia who covered her mouth with her hands widened her eyes, and her whole body shook.

"…God doesn't exist? God…is dead? Then the love we were given by him is…"

Kokabiel answered Asia doubt with a laugh.

"That's right. It's normal that there is no love from God and no divine protection from him. God is gone already. Michael is certainly doing well. He's taking the place of God and is taking care of the Angels and humans. Well, if the "system" used by God is operating, then the prayer to God, the blessing of God, and exorcism would function. But if you compare it to the time God was present, the number of believers decreased. That Holy-Demonic Sword brat over there was able to create the Holy-Demonic Sword because the balance between God and the Devil King is broken. In reality, Holy and Demonic powers cannot merge. If the ones who rule the power of Holy and Demonic powers, God and the Maou, disappear, then lots of unique phenomenons occur."

The reason why the Holy-Demonic Sword was created was no coincidence. It turned out like that because God didn't exist any more. Hearing Kokabiel's words, Asia dropped onto the floor. It wasn't weird for her to get shocked. The majority of her life involved serving God. She sacrificed her life because she thought God existed. A lot of things must be happening inside her.

Ignoring them, Kokabiel put his fist up in the air.

"From here on out, I will start a war! I will take your heads as a gift! Even if it's only me, I will continue from where we left off! I'm going to show Sirzechs and Michael that we, the Fallen-Angels, are the ultimate beings!"

 **Music Off**

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONN!

 **Play OST - Assassination Classroom - Haritsume Ta Kuuki**

All of a sudden, the second Kokabiel finished his words a sudden burst of darkness erupted from Shirou. Shirou who was just standing in that same spot from the moment Kokabiel began talking, he didn't utter a single word but just stayed silent while his eyes were overshadowed by his bangs while a shadowy Black aura started to emanate from his body.

Now that aura grew into pure darkness that looked as if would swallow anything it touched and a large amount of it surrounded Shirou's body until a pillar of Oppressive-Ominous darkness towered towards the sky. The darkness released from his body started creating a shockwave, which pushed Kokabiel back. Within the pillar of darkness and two Golden eyes were peering at him with a cold gaze.

"Shirou!" Rias shouted in horror at what she was seeing. "Answer me right now! What's going on?! Shirou!"

No answer was given as the darkness continued to erupt. Among everyone there though, it appeared that Kokabiel was the only one who knew what this was. And for some reason it made him have an expression filled with glee and excitement. "The seal is broken."

"The seal?" Rias repeated, confused.

"Hahahahahahahah! It seems that learning all those truths in quick succession weighed so heavily on his psyche!" Kokabiel chuckled exited. "So much so that it reduced his mind to such a pitiful state that the other Soul leaving inside of him finally had the opportunely to take control!"

"The other Soul." Rias' eyes widened in fear, knowing what that meant. "No this can't be."

Before long the darkness started to fluctuate until it finally dispersed, almost as if it shattered like glass. Standing in the same stop at the center of where the pillar form was Shirou. Only something was different, for starters the Boosted Gear was no longer on his arm. And he stood there unmoving while his eyes were closed. Most of all his body was cloaked in an aura of darkness, it was wrapped around him like a visible outline.

No one dared to utter a word for a brief moment.

Mika started trembling like a frightened child. "…B-Big Bro?" She asked in a scared tone.

"No." Ren stood in front of her looking distraught. "That's not Shirou anymore."

With Senjutsu, Ren could sense his aura. And the darkness surrounding him was nothing that he ever felt before, it didn't resemble Shirou in the least. It didn't even feel like a Devil, it felt cold and oppressive. Like a deep and empty abyss that never seemed to end. While at the same time it felt a terrifying force that would reduce anything that stood in its way to nothing. Ren almost felt like he would pass out if he was right in front of it.

Kokabiel now had a toothy, evil-looking smirk on his face. "It's been 400 years since you walked this earth. How does it feel to finally be resurrected, Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada?"

He looked towards Kokabiel and opened his eyes. They shined a brilliant, almost blinding Golden glow that resembled treasure. They looked like the same eyes that would appear whenever this Black aura surrounded Shirou in the past. But now it felt like they weren't Shirou's eyes anymore, those eyes carried a cold stare one that felt like they were staring right through you and could send a chill down your spine.

" **400 years?** " He spoke in a voice that resembled Shirou's but echoed along with a different one. " **That took much longer than expect.** "

 **Music Off**

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. Let's get the big one out of the way first. Yes, Shirou is a Heroes descendant. There are two reasons why I went with that idea. The first is because Shirou Fujimura did the same in his story Devil Reborn. I just changed Nobunaga Oda with Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada, why? Because I wanted someone else since the Nobunaga thing didn't really do it for me. Still, I chose someone from the same Era and I felt that being the descendant of someone famed to be blessed with great talent at such a young age. So much that it was considered to be Miraculous, I thought that was a great fit for the Tsukiharu siblings. Shirou inherited being a powerful warrior from their Mother, Mika inherited being a great Magician from their Father. They both inherited great natural talent from Shirōu Amakusa.**

 **The second reason was because, in the canon, the characters who were descendants of Heroes from the legends and mythologies were among some of my favourite characters. That fact that old Heroes had living descendants and that those descendants had the same name as them along with their great power. I really liked that trope, and I wanted to have my OC's be one of those characters.**

 **Now as for the part where Shirou was beating down Kokabiel. The way I see it, Kokabiel isn't nearly the incredible foe that the canon made him out to be. Sure everyone says he has an enormous amount of power. But that's basically it. His fighting has no skill or finesse or anything. He just summons a mass amount of power and fires it, that's all. That's a fighting style that is too simplistic to work on Shirou if they're on the same level. That's why he was outclassed thanks to Shirou's skill and Technique.**

 **That's also why Shirou thinks it's weird that Kokabiel would compare his Boosted powered up self with Sirzechs when Shirou clearly knows that he isn't that strong. Here's the thing, as far as I can tell Sirzechs never showed an ounce of his real strength when he fought Kokabiel in the past. If he did then Kokabiel couldn't possibly still be alive right. So I suspect he just used enough power to fight him off, which was the bare minimum of Satan-Level strength. That's also probably why Kokabiel said Rias was almost as strong as Sirzechs when Issei Boosted her power in the canon when she obviously wasn't.**

 **Now on to the rest of the chapter. I had Ren finally reveal himself as a Youkai because I figured it was finally time to just let the Cat out of the bag. Speaking of Cats, I'm pretty sure anyone who has even the least amount of knowledge on Highschool DxD knows why Koneko reacted like that when she saw his Senjutsu. It was slightly pushed to the side for right now, but the issue will be addressed later. And by later I mean shortly after the battle.**

 **As for** **Shirōu** **Amakusa himself. Think of him as like Hollow Ichigo from Bleach. He lives inside the Protagonist's mind and, they are like one body with two Souls, while he's trying to take control. After Shirou's mind became unstable he took control. But as for why he could only do that now, I'll explain that a little later.**

 **Now the next chapter will be the conclusion of the battle against Kokabiel and the Holy-Sword Arc. And for those of you expecting it to be just** **Shirōu** **Amakusa finishing off Kokabiel and that being the end of it, I promise that won't be the case. I have something big planned to conclude this fight and I'm pretty sure a lot of you will be pleased with it.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review, if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	23. Final Clash, Darkness And Light

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This chapter will not only be the end of the Kokabiel fight but also the end of the Excalibur Arc. I know that might seem a bit fast paced but I figured this was a good time. I actually have a lot planned out for this and there was a lot of things I wanted to put in this chapter that I've planning thinking of for a while.**

 **This chapter will also have a few extra things that I decided to place in because I feel they'll be a good addition to the story contact and will give help move things along in an enjoyable pace.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Final Clash, Darkness And Light**

* * *

Things have now taken a turn for what some could call the worst. Shirou had taken the upper hand and was dominating Kokabiel. But before he could finish it, Kokabiel had revealed the shocking fact of Shirou and Mika's bloodline being that of Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada, a powerful being from the past and that Shirou was a vessel that carried his lingering dark soul, he followed that up by revealing the death of God.

Before anyone could fully comprehend the situation though, something happened to Shirou. After being swallowed by a storm of darkness, the lingering soul of Shirōu Amakusa revealed himself, having taken control of Shirou's body and now standing on the battlefield cloaked in shadows. Everyone behind him could only look in shock and horror at what had happened. While Kokabiel just seemed entertained. Asia was still unconscious and so she couldn't react.

 **"I never imagine it would take so many centuries from me to reawaken."** Shirōu Amakusa spoke, looking at his hands to fully grasp his form and surroundings. **"But still this is good, this current vessel is much stronger than I had expected."**

"Hey you!" A voiced called out making him turn around.

It was Mika's voice.

"Where's my Brother?! What have you done with him?!" Mika shouted with a mixture of anger and fear.

 **Play OST - Xenosaga - Albedo Theme**

Once he turned to look at her, Mika felt a chill go down her spine. Her brother was her rock, the thing that always got her through any kind of struggle and made her feel safe, even on a battlefield. But now he was replaced by a something that had his face but was a different person and that terrified her. Especially his eyes, Shirou's eyes were warm and caring whenever she saw them, but the eyes she saw now where as cold as ice and filled with darkness.

" **Ah, you are Mika.** " Shirōu Amakusa addressed her, with his same emotionless tone.

It was as if he didn't respond to Mika outburst, or didn't care about her concern for Shirou.

Mika instinctively took a step back when he spoke. "How do you know my name?"

 **"Even though I've been dormant, I was still able to process information from my vessel to an extent."** Shirōu Amakusa answered, surprising the others. **"You are the younger sister of my current vessel and the second child of my previous one."** He then looked at the Gremory group. **"And you all are the members of the Peerage he belongs to. I never imagined one of my vessels would become a Devil. But I suppose it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things."**

Everyone didn't know how to respond to all this. It just felt like it hadn't fulling sunken in yet. And yet they were somewhat afraid, afraid about what was going to happen now and of what could the intentions of this enigmatic being in front of them could have. It also felt somewhat strange that they were afraid of someone who was technically Shirou, but it couldn't be helped.

Now Rias stepped forward. "Even so you didn't answer her question." She spoke out, not letting herself be intimidated. "What have you done to Shirou!?"

" **I've done nothing to him. Right now my current vessel's consciousness is locked deep in the deepest concern of his mind, just as I was.** " Shirōu Amakusa explained. " **You can think of it as us being like the sun and moon, when on vanishes the other appears, and as such we have switched positions. When his mind had wavered I seized control of this body.** "

"No, that can't be." Rias denied, refusing to believe it. "There's no way our Shirou would let someone else take control of him, his will and his mind are far to strong for that!"

"She's right." Ren agreed. "Shirou's mental fortitude is strong enough to endure what most people couldn't dream of, it's almost unbreakable." He said with certainty. "There's no way his mind could've been so vulnerable that he'd let you take over."

" **What you're both saying is correct in this case, his strength of will is praise-worthy.** " Shirōu Amakusa admitted, before he shook his head. " **But I had others way of freeing myself. The truth is, the thing that stopped me from taking control of this vessel in the past was because I was sealed, which made taking control almost impossible. But over time I was able to gradually weakened that seal.** "

"Weaken the seal?" Rias asked, her eyes widened. "But how?"

" **By lending him my power.** " Shirōu Amakusa answered, shocking everyone. " **I doubt any of you noticed but during many of his most fierce battles, as they were reaching there conclusion he unconsciously called out for greater power than he currently had and thus I gave him mine. Whenever he called upon my power the seal would weaken and the stronger he became the more of my power he received.** "

What Shirōu Amakusa was saying was indeed true. From when Shirou first fought Raynare, the three Fallen-Angels after Asia was captured, and his final battle with Raiser. All those times before the final blow Shirou would feel himself grow temporarily strong. And his eyes and aura changed to match that of Shirōu Amakusa's. Even though Shirou was the only one aware of these facts he never knew why.

Because none of the others knew about any of this, they were all shocked. Wondering if this could be true and if so, how many times has this happened. Though it made them realize a fact that only now sunk in and. In his most difficult fights, Shirou fought with all his power and yet, they were never around. That stung.

" **After lending him enough of my power the seal had weakened to such a degree that all it took was one final push for me to revive.** " Shirōu Amakusa continued, not caring to notice their expressions. " **The revelations he learned today shook his heart enough for me to complete destroy the seal, and not missing my chance and claimed this vessel. And now this body is mine.** "

"Wait, then what'll happen to Shirou-kun?" Kiba asked, with worry.

" **This body is now mine, his consciousness is being consumed by my darkness as we speak.** " Shirōu Amakusa explained. " **In due time he will be completely swallowed by darkness and when that happens, his consciousness will completely cease to exist, never to return.** "

If anyone wasn't shocked before, they were after hearing that.

"No… You're saying that Shirou will…" Rias didn't dared say it.

"Will die…?" Akeno finished the sentence with reluctance.

 **Music Off**

" **I suppose you can think of it as death.** " Shirōu Amakua answered. " **Either way, he'll vanish without a trance.** "

"You can't!" Rias shouted defiant. But she stopped when she saw Mika step forward.

"…Release him, please you have to!" Mika pleaded with a gaze filled with desperation. "If you don't… Then without him I… I…" She started to trembled like a leaf in the wind.

The others looked at her with sympathy, it was hard to see her like this, it was almost pitiful, but not surprising. after all they knew her entire mental state revolved entirely around her older brother and now without him around to focus her, she unravelled like a thread on a spindle. At this point they were partly glad that Asia was still unconscious considering she would probably have the same reaction and they didn't want to she her bear this pain as well.

Shirōu Amakusa looked at them briefly before answering.

" **I refuse.** " He immediately decided, without hesitating. " **Regardless of how much he means to all of you, I have waited hundreds of years to resurrect. And it would be foolish to reseal myself simply for the whims of others. I'm not waiting any longer.** "

What he was saying did make sense from his perspective. This was something he's been waiting 400 years for and the others are no different than strangers to him, so he has no obligation to do what they say. However, at the same time it was like he couldn't care less about how it effect them or seeing it from their perspective. At that moment, Mika stopped quivering and stepped forward.

As always what comes after grief is rage, it was as if all her desperation changed from a desperate child filled with fear to a cornered animal in the wild that would attack even if it got killed in the process. Her magic-power flared.

"Then, if you won't give him back." Mika's tone was cold and unforgiving. "I'll force you out of him!"

"Mika don't!" Rias said, concerned she wasn't thinking straight.

Which of course she wasn't. Though before she or anyone else did anything, Ren stepped in front of her and held her back.

"Outta my way Ren!" Mika demanded. "I have to do this."

Ren seemed to remain calm. "Do what exactly?" He questioned. "Even if you fought him you have no idea if that'll bring back Shirou and even if it did, could you bring yourself to attack at full strength knowing you could risk destroying Shirou's body?"

Mika stopped and processed his words, then she looked down and shook with frustration. She knew that he was right, the fact remained that it was still Shirou's body and the thought of attacking it without any guarantee was unthinkable to her. But she didn't know what else to do.

Ren then placed a hand on her shoulder. "Look, I know how you feel and personally I want to do something too." He said gently. "But we can't lose our heads, on top of that we still have to deal with Kokabiel and save the town. We'll think of a plan when we have more time and a clear idea, that's what Shirou would want."

The things Ren was saying were the honest truth. He's known Shirou long enough to know he would prioritize defeating the enemy over his well-being and how he would deal with this situation without caving under the pressure. Mika understood that and calmed down a bit after taking a step back, she was still extremely worried but she also knew she couldn't afford to fall apart now.

Rias who saw their exchange was surprised on how Ren was able to reach Mika in a way she always thought that only Shirou was capable of, and now realized that after Shirou, the one she trusted the most was most-likely Ren.

" **I think you all have the wrong idea about me.** " Shirōu Amakusa spoke out, getting their attention. " **While it is true I don't intend on returning this vessel, I am not your enemy. Nor do I have any intention of fighting you.** "

"You don't?" Akeno asked, now confused. "Then what are your intentions?"

" **To settle some unfinished business at a later time, as for right now though.** " Shirōu Amakusa turned away from them and looked towards Kokabiel and pointed at him. " **You Kokabiel, I plan on you being the first one I destroy.** "

After saying that, Shirōu Amakusa began marching towards the Fallen-Angel leader who had do nothing but watch this exchange in silence and interest. Now he seemed excited at the idea of fighting. While the rest of the Gremory group watched him go, wondering what they should do in this situation, or if there was anything they could do.

"Well, that took a while. I was getting bored of waiting." Kokabiel had a mocking tone in his voice. "Now things have gotten more interesting than I had hoped."

" **Enjoy that carefree nature while you can.** " Shirōu Amakusa warned him, not feeling any worry. " **Because when this is over, you'll sink into an endless abyss of despair.** "

Kiba went up to Rias. "Chief, what do you suggest we do now?" He asked quietly.

"For now let's watch." Rias said, not taking her eyes of the two. "If we're lucky and he does defeat Kokabiel, we'll have a chance to save Shirou."

Kiba could tell by her tone an expression that Rias was feeling desperate herself. But he couldn't blame her considering he was no different. Kiba couldn't stop gripping his Sword and looked at the two about to fight. He had finally overcome his past and could move on, Shirou was the reason for that, he couldn't bear the thought of him vanishing after all that's happened.

 _"Shirou-kun… You can't die."_ Kiba thought. _"Not before I even had the chance to thank you."_

Back to the two about to fight, Kokabiel power-up his Holy-aura and was surrounded by a dark-yellow light that coated his body, it sent a chill down the spines of every nearby Devil. While, Shirōu Amakusa's was completely different, his aura flared up and let out a pure black aura that surrounded his body like an outer-line. Yet seeing it made Kokabiel grin.

"There it is, the famous Power of Darkness that only you possess, it's why your foes called you, the Shadow that casts over Japan." Kokabiel addressed, referring to his aura. "This truly is a rare opportunity, instead of just fighting a descendant I can fight your personally."

Shirōu Amakusa seemed amused by those words. " **Hmph, you had best careful about what you consider to be an opportunity.** "

 **Play Soundtrack - Pantera - 10s**

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNN!

Upon saying those words, he let out a strong roar facing upwards as if he was directing it towards the heavens. This made his aura swirl and wave around his body wildly. Then the Power of Darkness radiated around him and grew bigger and bigger until it exploded and starting rising upwards like a pillar of darkness concentrated around him. Everyone could feel it, it didn't feel like Demonic-power, but rather pure hostility and hatred, the emotion was so strong it could be felt. And it gave them chills. His power even without the Boosted Gear, slowly but surely surpassed the level of a Satan.

Then in that instant. Before Kokabiel could take a step forward, Shirōu Amakusa vanished and then reappeared right in front of him with speed that surpassed Shirou's top speed. Shirōu Amakusa quickly delivered a strong punch on Kokabiel's face, which gave him a bloody nose. While he was stun, reeling from the pain, Shirōu Amakusa hit him with a double axe-punch on his stomach, making Kokabiel cough out blood.

Kokabiel grit his teeth and summoned a Sword of Light, which he used to slash downwards at Shirōu Amakusa. But he quickly ducked past it and jumped back to gain some distance.

Kokabiel noticed his action and smirked. "I see, since you've taken over a Devil's body you share the same weakness." He deduced. "So Light is poisonous to you."

" **What does that matter?** " Shirōu Amakusa asked, unconcerned. " **It wouldn't make a difference if you can't hit me, just like you couldn't hit my vessel when he fought you.** "

Kokabiel frowned, he wanted to dismiss that statement but he couldn't exactly say it wasn't true, so he said nothing. While Shirōu Amakusa looked over his arms and the rest of his body after landing those attacks.

" **This new body is pretty good.** " He admired, closing his fists. " **Yes, strong and well-built. It's almost the same as my original body, I should get used to this before long. I'm almost able to draw out my full power already.** "

Now he drew Dyrnwyn from its sheath. Though the blade didn't glow nor did it ignite with flames. Even though he took over Shirou's body, he couldn't use the Boosted Gear and so Dyrnwyn didn't acknowledge him as its wielder, thus he couldn't use its power. But Shirōu Amakusa had another option. He spread his aura over the Sword and had t coated the blade with darkness.

Everyone watching was shocked. The pure white blade and dark red hilt and pommel of Dyrnwyn were now as black as a starless night sky. Drynwyn was always a Holy-Sword and even Devils could understand what an amazing Sword it was, its very being was Holy, radiant and sacred. But now it felt completely, the Sword didn't feel anything like a Holy-Sword anymore. It was dark and distorted. It was now an instrument of death.

Shirōu Amakusa looked over the Sword, like he was inspecting it. " **It's not as good as my old Sword, but it'll do.** "

Shirōu Amakusa then gripped the hilt and swung the Sword at Kokabiel which created a dark flying Sword-slash that was heading towards the Fallen-Angel at high speed. Kokabiel spread his wings and flew upwards to dodge it. But Shirōu Amakusa anticipated that action and pointed his free hand up at Kokabiel. Suddenly sparks of Lightning as black as his aura gathered in the palm of his hand.

 _ **DIES IRAE!**_

RUUUUUUUMBLEEEEEE!

A large bolt of black Lightning was fired from his arm at struck Kokabiel. It almost looked like an altered version of Shirou's Dragon Thunder Stream, but this lightning was bigger than the ones Shirou normally uses. And it was much stronger. Like with Akeno's, Kokabiel tried to wrap his wings around himself to defended, but this time that offered no defence and he was hit by the full force of the attack. All the cells in his body felt a strong electronic shock that was hitting him with more pain than anything else he's been hit with today.

"GGGUUUAAAHHHH!" Kokabiel cried out in pain, while being zapped.

Akeno's eyes widened just by looking at it. "…Black… Lightning?"

Soon the attack ceased and Kokabiel's body had a few burns and smoking rising from him. The damage looked less painful than it was. Kokabiel was panting trying to fight to withstand the pain he was in, fortunately being a veteran of the Great-War made him more used to damage than most and he was able to fight through it. That wasn't to say he wasn't angry about it.

" **Surprised? Even though I can't use my vessel's Longinus. I still have access to all his magic and abilities.** "Shirōu Amakusa explained, pleased. " **I should have complete control after a bit of practice.** "

"Is that what you think all this is?!" Kokabiel yelled insulted. "Fighting me is just an excuse to practice using your powers?!"

" **You should feel honored.** " Shirōu Amakusa said with a smirk. " **Most people die after the first strike, yet I consider you strong enough to be useful for a warn up, a privilege not many have.** "

His words were just as proud and arrogant as Shirou's, he even had his own smirk. And like so many in the past who had seen that smirk, Kokabiel was angered to the boiling point. He summoned a large Spear of Light and charged at him like a mad boar.

"NOW YOU DIE!" Kokabiel bellowed.

" **Don't flatter yourself.** " Shirōu Amakusa raised his blade.

KATCHIN!

Their two weapons clashed. Darkness and Light overlapped struggling to overpower each other along with the ones holding them. But while Kokabiel was struggling to push back Shirōu Amakusa, he didn't seem to have any trouble blocking Kokabiel's attempted strike. It was almost as if his lack of struggle was another way of mocking his opponent.

He then pushed his Sword forward and knocked Kokabiel away, followed by spreading his Devil wings and taking to the sky. Kokabiel followed after him and they started to fight in the air. Kokabiel thrust his Spear at a high speed flurry, while Shirōu Amakusa swiftly dodge each strike. It ended while he swung fourth Dyrnwyn and knocked the Spear back. He aimed to slice Kokabiel on the shoulder, but Kokabiel used his Spear to parry his Sword. Kokabiel then changed his Spear into a Sword and summoned a second one in his other. The two then began a violent exchange has clashes.

KATCHIN! SWISH! CLASH! CLANG! SWISS! BAKIN! BREAK!

It ended when both of Kokabiel's Sword were destroyed after clashing with Dyrnwyn. Because his blade carried more power than Kokabiel's summoned weapons, they were able to break them after repeated strikes. Taking advantage of the opening, Shirōu Amakusa used his speed to get behind Kokabiel and axe-kicked him in the should, which sent him crashing to the ground.

After hitting the ground Kokabiel stood back up after a grunt and once Shirōu Amakusa touched the ground himself, he put Dyrnwyn back in its sheath.

Kokabiel frowned at that. "Why have you sheathed your Sword?"

" **Oh I don't need it anymore.** " Shirōu Amakusa answered causally.

That comment only made Kokabiel angrier. He held out both hands and shot out multiple orbs of Holy-energy at him, which he dodged while running. Shirōu Amakusa then got in close and swipe kicked Kokabiel's legs, Kokabiel flew to avoid falling and tried slicing him with another Spear of Light. Shirōu Amakusa ducked under the Spear and punched Kokabiel with a hard blow on his liver.

He followed by uppercutting Kokabiel's chin, chained that to a round-house kick on Kokabiel's ribs and finished his combo by grabbing Kokabiel's wrist and as he used his own arms as a fulcrum, using all his strength he flipped Kokabiel backwards, high in the air before slamming him into the ground head-first.

Right now everyone watching were amazed. Kokabiel was an incredibly powerful enemy that they couldn't do anything against. Yet, now he was being completely trashed like an amateur by Shirōu Amakusa. Even Shirou couldn't overwhelm him like this, the fact is that Kokabiel has been knocked many times over the course of the fight while not having landed a single blow himself. It was almost pathetic.

WHOOSH!

Kokabiel shot up into the air and stopped once he was a few stories in the sky, he then held his hands over his head.

"ENOUGH!" He roared, Kokabiel's eyes were the eyes of someone who has snapped. He was blind with rage now. "I'm ending this farce now! SHIRŌU AMAKUSA!"

In his hands Kokabiel gathered his Holy-energy and summoned a large Spear of Light. Adding more power into it, the Spear grow twice as big. It grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger. When he was finally done, it completely dwarfed the size of its holder and was as big as a skyscraper, it was bigger enough to consume the whole campus and had enough power to wipe out the town.

Everyone looking at it were filled with both panic and despair.

"Holy shit…" Ren muttered in shock.

Rias fell to her knees and was trembling. "It's no use, we can't stop that."

"DODGE ALL YOU WANT, YOU CAN'T SURVIVE IF I DESTROY THIS WHOLE TOWN!" Kokabiel bellowed with madness. "THIS HOLY ATTACK WILL WIPE OUT EVERY TRACE OF YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE. YOU'RE FINISHED!"

"He's insane." Mika noted whilst gritting her teeth.

On those words Kokabiel hurled the enormous Spear towards the ground and it came down like an atom bomb made to destroying everything. Shirōu Amakusa however didn't seem worried, he just stood there and smirked like he was waiting for this. He flared up his Power of Darkness and held up his hand like he was planning to catch the Spear as he whispered. " **Fool.** "

 **Music Off**

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNN!

There was no explosion like everyone was expecting. Rather every single person on the battlefield just stared wide-eyed at what had just happened. None were more dumbfounded than Kokabiel himself, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing, or rather he couldn't believe it was a possibility.

Shirōu Amakusa, having not moved from were he stood still had his hand outstretched, only now it was shrouded in darkness. When the enormous Spear of Light had reached him, it was somehow dispelled and vanished into nothingness, almost like it was instantly deconstructed.

"…But how?" Kokabiel utter now shaken, still unable to understand. "I don't understand… What just happened?"

Shirōu Amakusa couldn't hold it in anymore and started to laugh. " **Hahahaha, you don't understand? Of course you don't, I made sure of that.** "

"What…? Grr, what are you talking about?!" Kokabiel demanded to know.

" **Isn't it obvious, you knew of the Power of Darkness, however you've never actually seen if personally. Because of that you had no idea, that it has the power to completely nullify Light magic entirely.** " Shirōu Amakusa revealed shocking everyone.

"T-That's a lie!" Kokabiel denied desperately. "You were desperately trying to dodge my attacks this whole time!"

" **A bluff, one which you completely fell for.** " Shirōu Amakusa confessed mockingly. " **You jumped to the wrong conclusion and I let you believe it, I was waiting for you to use your best shot so I could nullify. Darkness swallows everything, nothing can escape from its pull not even Light. Everyone knows that.** "

The others were shocked by what they were hearing.

"He can nullify Light?" Rias asked, not believing such a thing was possible.

"That power can spell doom for any Angel, even a Fallen one." Kiba noted taken-aback.

"Then, this whole time he could have ended this fight whenever he choose." Akeno realized.

"It's more than just that." Xenovia said, still on one knee while using her Sword as a clutch. She started to shake while gritting her teeth. "It means this was never a fight, all this time Kokabiel was just dancing in the palm of his hand."

Kokabiel had come to the same conclusion but was trembling with frustration, still refusing to accept this. "This can't be… How could I have fallen for such I simple ploy?!"

" **That's clearly because you're simple-minded.** " Shirōu Amakusa answered, like he was stating a fact. " **While it is true you have a massive amount of power, you rarely think especially when you fight. If you had mastered a specific fighting style, any kind of weapon or even learned that basics of strategy you might of had a chance. But in reality all your power made you arrogant and you became a travesty of a warrior whose only ability is to summon a mass amount of power and fire it at his enemy. Kokabiel, you are the embodiment of wasted potential.** "

Kokabiel clenched his fists and aimed his palm at Shirōu Amakusa. "SHUT UP!"

Kokabiel quickly descended and stood on the ground, after which he fired three Orbs of Light at Shirōu Amakusa in rage, but he just lifted up his hand again and all of them instantly vanished into nothing after touching him. Kokabiel just gawked at that. Shirōu Amakusa wasn't done as he placed his hand on the hilt of his Sword.

SLASH!

 **Play OST - Kuroko No Basket - Chikara no sa (Extended)**

Before Kokabiel or anyone could react at the scene, Shirōu Amakusa instantly disappeared from the spot where he stood. Kokabiel widened his eyes as he tried to find where he would attack from when suddenly an excruciating pain rang in his left arm. He glanced over to see his left arm falling to the ground as it was completely separated from his body. Sweat dripped from his face as his shifted his attention behind him to see a calm Shirōu Amakusa with blood dripping from his blade.

"Gugh!" Kokabiel cried out in pain. _"What happened? I couldn't even sense him."_

 _"That was beyond any speed I've ever seen."_ Kiba thought amazed. _"His speed suddenly went up again and he travelled so fast even my eyes couldn't keep up with him. But one thing's for sure, if I couldn't see it than I'm pretty sure the others, including Kokabiel have no idea what just happened."_

" **Do you understand now?** " Shirōu Amakusa in a sinister way. " **I've just been toying with you this whole time because you're no match for me. If I ever felt like killing you, I could have a long** **time ago.** "

Kokabiel sneered, but soon had an evil grin on his face. "I could say the same to you!" He then slammed his hand onto the ground.

DOOOOOOOOON!

Sudden the ground was hit with a large magnitude and things started to shake. The magic-circle that was created from the merged Excaliburs lit-up and began to glow the same Holy-Light it had when it was first created. This caused the ground to shake because Kokabiel was using his own power to forcibly activate the circle and have it explode, taking out the whole town.

"What's going on?" Ren asked, not understanding. "It hasn't been 30 minutes yet."

"Hahahahaha!" Kokabiel laughed madly. "You fools! For the very start I could have just detonated the circle and destroy this town along with the rest of you! I only waited to enjoy some entertainment before going through with my plan!" He then directed his mad gaze at Shirōu Amakusa. "This is the power that I possess! You can't run or hide from an explosion of this magnitude! This is where you die! I HAVE WON!"

Shirōu Amakusa however didn't seem the least bit worried and gathered more Darkness in his hand. " **It seems you still don't understand.** "

Like Kokabiel he slammed his hand into the ground. Only for him, his Darkness hit the ground and spread out, it rushed out like water and started to cover the entire battlefield, including the magic-circle. Even the ground stopped shaking. Now creeping across the ground was a Darkness that looked like monstrous shadow, that was pitch-black, similar to a bottomless hole.

BREAK!

Then after a few seconds, by his will the Darkness shattered away like glass and left nothing behind, the ground was untouched. And to Kokabiel's shock and disbelief, his Holy magic-circle that was supposed to destroy the town was gone, like it never existed in the first place.

" **I told you, Darkness swallows everything, even Light.** " Shirōu Amakusa repeated, lifting his hand. " **Since the magic-circle you used was made from the aura of a Holy-Sword there was nothing stopping me from nullifying it. The fact that you lost yourself to madness and didn't realize that, you've fallen so low I almost can't bear to watch.** " He tone was filled with disappointment.

Kokabiel began to tremble, not with anger this time but rather shock. It was as if everything he built himself upon was falling apart. He, a superior Fallen-Angel that survived the Great War and was recorded in the bible was reduced to this state, that magic-circle was his last resort and it was proven to be useless. The only thing that reflected in his eyes now was confusion.

"How…?" He asked, not knowing what else to say. "I'm someone who has survived fighting God and the Maou…"

" **No you haven't.** "

Shirōu Amakusa argued, getting his attention.

" **Though you claim to have fought God and the Maou, in truth the fact is you've never faced them once in battle.** " Shirōu Amakusa said darkly, almost with a sneer. " **Because you faced Heaven's Strongest forces and fought on the front-lines against the Underworld, you can say you've faced God and the Maou, but in truth that's just a technicality. Any foot soldier can make the same claim if they survived the same things. Do you honestly believe you would have survived a single blow from them? don't be so vain.** "

"You're wrong!" Kokabiel denied in raged. "Do you have any idea on who I am!? I am a Fallen-Angel of the highest echelon, the mightiest race in the world!" He shouted, still believing this to be fact. "And it is by my hand that a new Great War shall start!"

Shirōu Amakusa reached out his hand and shot some magic at him, knocking Kokabiel to the ground.

" **You clearly don't know who you are, especially if you think that you alone are worth another War.** " Shirōu Amakusa stated, disagreeing with him. " **Why do you think Michael and Sirzechs only sent their subordinates to fight instead of facing you themselves? It's because their power would be wasted on a mindless beast like you. Even if you won today, the Three Great Powers would only send their forces at you instead of each other, and do you know why? Because that is the best way to clean up a small skirmish like this. So rather than War, it'll be a simple extermination of an annoyance in the world.** "

The words Shirōu Amakusa spoke were cold, but they did make sense. From a logical standpoint, if the Trinity Factions had lost so much from the past war that they couldn't afford a second one, then the solution could be to destroy the instigator of this incident and place all the blame on him.

Though Kokabiel believed that he could ignite a new war, would anyone really take a declaration of war from a single enemy serious. Even if it was a Cadre Fallen-Angel.

" **Now let me ask you; Do you have any idea who _I_ am? I am the one who holds the power that can bring this whole world to its knees, the Shadow that Casts over Japan. A pitiful little Angel who fell from grace was never a threat to me.**" He flared up the Darkness around his body to prepare a final attack. " **I'm done with you, now to finish this.** "

 **Music Off**

* * *

Somewhere, deep in the furthest corners of his mind, Shirou stood surrounded by nothingness. It was like an endless void of eternal darkness. The darkness was in all sides but there wasn't anything that could be seen, or heard… Nothing but darkness everywhere.

It stretched out into the distance, but there honestly nothing there. This void was almost suffocating, there was no warmth, no air, no sound… Just emptiness. And more than that, the darkness felt strange. As if, as crazy as it sounds, the darkness was alive, watching him. It was a disturbing thought.

Shirou himself stood with an expressionless look on his face. Like all the emotions he had were taken from him and he was now a lifeless shell. No light reflected from his eyes, one could almost mistake him for a life-sized doll.

"…Where am I…?"

Shirou's tone was a quiet, detached and empty on. His voice echoed in this silent void.

Soon some of the darkness started to converge and shape into a living form. After a few seconds the darkness had formed into a humanoid silhouette, it was a reflection of Shirou only completely pitch-black, like a living shadow. Expect it still had a face and his eyes were shining golden.

This was the dark soul of Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada.

" **You are in the deepest corners of your mind.** " He answered his question. " **Just as I was sealed here until now, you are bound here until your soul vanishes.** "

"…Vanishes?"

Shirou's tone didn't change, he sounded curious but not worried.

" **That's right, you are my vessel. You only existed until I could commandeer your body for myself. Now that I have, your role is complete. And as such you must disappear.** "

 **Play OST - Persona 5 - Regret**

Upon finishing his explanation the darkness beneath Shirou's feet started to change. Instead of a flat void it now resembled an ocean's surface. The darkness then started to raise up from the soles of his feet as if it was swallowing him and it was still rising. At the rate it was going it would consume his entire body before long.

" **Once the darkness completely swallows your body, your soul will cease to exist and this body will truly be mine.** "

"But… why do you want my body? …And who are you?"

He smiled after hearing those questions.

" **I am a being who holds the greatest power in this world, all I need is a vessel to use to hold my soul. And as for why I want yours, that's because it rightfully belongs to me.** "

"It belongs… To you?"

The darkness reached Shirou's knees.

" **You are my descendant and as such my blood flows through your veins, granting you power others can only dream of. Thanks to my power you have experienced victory after victory. But the truth is those victories weren't yours, without me you never would have made it this far. Even in your most important battles I gifted you with my Darkness. After all that, you can't deny that I am the rightful holder of this vessel.** "

His words were spoken with confidence and certainty, like he was simply stating the facts and yet they carried charisma and just flowed at out of him, as if you couldn't not believe him.

The darkness reached Shirou's torso.

"I… Made it this far… Because of you…?" He muttered looking down, like he trying to remember something forgotten. "You are… The rightful holder…?"

" **Yes that's right. Just still like that and don't resist, keep listening to the voice of reason inside of you. You're almost there.** "

Though his encouragement the darkness reached Shirou's shoulders.

" _Why do I feel like… Something is missing?_ " Shirou thought to himself.

SHINE!

 **Music Off**

Suddenly, a glowing green light started to shine over Shirou's right hand. A light so bright it glowed even through the darkness enveloping it. Shirou looked down to see this light and when he did his eyes widened. His emotionless expression was gone and felt like everything was flooding back into him. Like he found what was missing.

 _(Shirou's smirk grew. "I am what you dread. But people call me the Red Dragon Emperor.")_

 _(Shirou chuckled a bit. "It's true, I am a Devil, but." Shirou then held his fist in the air. "I'm also the one who looks down on all other races." Shirou declared with pride.)_

 _(Your mistake was assuming you could read my moves, or even assuming that I would do what you thought I would." Shirou proclaimed proudly. "The thing about me is, I always act beyond everyone's expectations!" He roared.)_

 _(Yeah, it's the same for me." Shirou tightened his grip. "No matter what, I'll bear any pain, for your sake.)_

He could feel his desires that were etched into his mind, his struggles that were scarred into his body, his hope that drove him to charge forward, his strength that brought down every foe in his way, his spirit that endured every hardship and always grew stronger, his burning determination that was as strong and a raging inferno and harder than steel. Shirou's eyes were back to normal.

" **Give in and surrender yourself to me.** "

He continued, but suddenly just as the darkness had reached Shirou's neck, it stopped and didn't climb any further.

 **Play OST - Persona 5 - Our Beginning**

"LIKE HELL I WILL!" Shirou roared with all his strength.

 _DISHIN!_

A shattered sound echoed over the void as the darkness surrounding Shirou's body cracked like glass and shattered into pieces, thus setting him free. Shirōu Amakusa was dumbfound at what he was seeing.

" **What? This is impossible, no one should be able to regain their sense of self hear in the void. That goes beyond just a strong will power.** "

"Didn't you know? I thought you were watching." Shirou said approaching him. "I always act beyond that expectations of others and do you why? Because I'm Shirou-Sama!"

Shirōu Amakusa sneered. " **No, you are my vessel. You only exist so I can live again, nothing more.** "

Shirou smirked. "You don't seem to realize what it means to be Shirou-Sama. It means you are the one who will never fall, the Strongest fighter this world has ever seen, the one who has fought countless battle and earned countless victories. To that end, I have lived for fighting, I've fought more people in a week than most people have in their whole lives. And no matter who stands in my way, I will always be victorious." Shirou clenched his fist with conviction. "That is who I am, and its stronger than you!"

Shirōu Amakusa could feel the conviction emanating from Shirou and he knew this wasn't good for him. The more Shirou's conviction and resolve grow the more impossible it would be for him to take over his body. He need to do something.

" **But you forget that what you say is only true because of me.** " Shirōu Amakusa reminded him. " **You have always needed my power, against those Fallen-Angels, when facing the Phenex and even now.** "

"Don't flatter yourself." Shirou argued, not backing down. "The way I remember, all those times I fought them by myself and you only stepped in when I was about t finish it. So I could have won on my own but just jumped in to try and take the win for yourself, even now I could've beaten Kokabiel without you." His words were filled with confidence and looking back, he wasn't wrong. "Besides, its not like you made me train like hell everyday or gave me the Boosted Gear, so even if I'm strong because I'm your descendant, I could've been strong even without you. In fact, I already am."

After hearing him saying his piece Shirōu Amakusa just stood silent. He knew he couldn't possibly break Shirou's spirit now and so be couldn't completely overtake his body. Surprising enough though, instead of being anger or upset he just had a small smile.

" **You believe you can overturn your current situation without my power?** "

"Weren't you listening? Of course I can."

" **Very well then.** " Shirōu Amakusa's form started to fluctuate and his began to fade away into the darkness. " **It seems I underestimated you, I will return to the darkness for now. But know this, now that the seal has been broken it can never be restored. The day your resolve ever breaks is the day I will resurface.** "

Once he finished with that final warning his form vanished back into the void, all trace of him was no more. And now, Shirou started to rise upwards and a light appeared above him, as if a way out had appeared.

Shirou smiled. "That day will never come."

 **Music Off**

* * *

Back on the battlefield, things were still the same. Shirōu Amakusa stood facing a downed Kokabiel. The others were watching not knowing what else they could do and Kokabiel was out of options and could only wait for death to claim him.

Shirōu Amakusa flared up the Darkness around his body to prepare a final attack. " **I'm done with you, now to finish this.** "

CRACK!

However, just before he could create his attack a crack appeared on his skin and his body froze. The crack slowly spread to the rest of his body and the black aura was leaking out of him. The black aura began to cover him until it formed a cocoon and for a few seconds it didn't move, finally it broke apart and burst open, causing the darkness to fade away into nothing.

Everyone looked on with surprise not understanding what was happening. Standing in the same spot he was in before the cocoon formed was Shirou's body, however everyone watching noticed that the Power of Darkness no longer coated his body and more than that when he opened his eyes, they were the colour blue instead of gold.

That only meant one thing.

He clenched his fists and cracked a smirk.

"I'm back bitches."

Shirou was back.

The Gremory Peerage were all at a loss for words. This was all to sudden, no explanation, no signs. Shirou was gone and now he was back. What could they say to all this. Though one person had something to say.

"B-Big Bro?" Mika asked, almost afraid. "Is that you?"

Shirou turned around to face her, showing that his eyes were back to normal.

"Hell yeah it's me." He said smiling. "You know anyone this dominate?"

His words were normal for Shirou as well but, it wasn't his words that Mika payed attention to. The darkness and coldness of his eyes were gone and now his eyes were back to how she remembered them, it was the same for his smile and voice. It was like the warmth of the sun shining its comforting rays over her and clearing out any fear or dismay, that was the warmth she always felt radiating from the current Shirou.

That one look was all she needed to now. The one standing in front of her was her brother. Mika felt some much relief tears almost fell from her eyes. _"…Big Bro?"_ She thought with a smile.

Now Rias stepped forward. "But how? I thought you were overtaken by the dark soul of your ancestor. Shirou, how did you break free?"

Rias' spoke for all of them. Her servants, Ren, Xenovia and herself. The fact that the Shirou they knew was back was a great relief to all of them, but they at the very least would like to know how and why. Though Shirou just shrugged.

"I know you want answers and I do admit it's fair I explain all this." Shirou turned his head. "But right now isn't the best time, I'll explain after I finally clean up this mess. Don't worry though, this won't take long."

"Fuhaha, fuhahahahahahahahahaha!" Kokabiel just laughed, having regained his confidence after this new turn of events. "You're right, this won't take long! I don't know how you returned, but you being here has sealed your own fate and this entire towns fate!"

"Is that right?" Shirou casually asked, not worried.

"It is, Shirōu Amakusa was your absolute last ray of hope! Without him you weaklings no longer have a chance against me!" Kokabiel said with complete confidence. "And don't think I'll let you Boost your power again. This time, I'll finish you before you can even attempt it."

Kokabiel summoned a Spear of Light with his one remaining arm. But Shirou still didn't look worried and summoned his Boosted Gear.

"Not a bad idea, but a little too late." Shirou raised his arm up. "I have a new trick up my sleeve, and I'm sure you'll love it."

FLAAAAASSSSHHHHHH!

The jewel on the Boosted Gear started to glow brightly and Shirou shouted out two words that would change everything.

"Balance Break!"

 **[Welsh Dragon — Balance Breaker!]**

At that new announcement Shirou's eyes started glowing in the same colour as the jewel and a large amount of power started a large red-fiery pillar towered towards the sky. The power released from his body started creating shockwaves, which slightly pushed away Kokabiel and the others. Within the fiery pillar of power, a deep Crimson aura cloaked Shirou's body and something started to happen to him.

Suddenly, the Sliver-haired Devil was having pieces of red scale-like armor attaching itself to his body. First was the breastplate, along with shoulder guards, and a second gauntlet the left arm, then his legs and feet were armored up as well. A long tail was also added, before finally the helmet and mask.

The pillar of aura soon dispersed and Shirou stood there, revealed to be donned in a new armored form. The armor was red, had a sharp shape and was bulky enough that Shirou was a big as Sairaorg. The plating of the armor gave it the motif of a Dragon. The gauntlet remained on his right arm, but his left arm also had one equipped His armored boots had three sharp toes. The jewels on the Boosted Gear was now present on his arms, shoulders, knees and the middle of his torso. The helmet was only as big as his head and had two golden horns points forward. The mask was sharp-like, with green eyes as visors. And finally on his back were things that resembled rocket booster propulsion and two red wings that resembled Dragon wings. Attached to his back, placed diagonally between his wings and jets was Dyrnwyn.

"Balance Breaker?" Rias asked out loud in shock, as the others around her were just as surprised. Kokabiel grit his teeth with frustration. "Where did that come from?"

 **[Congratulations Partner, you were about to find an appropriate catalyst in facing your inner darkness. And with that you had everything you needed to Balance Break.]**

Ddraig informed Shirou telepathically.

 _"So I guess getting taken over for a bit had an upside after all."_ Shirou joked inwardly.

 **[It would seem so. Now you can use your Balance Breaker whenever you see fit.]**

 _"Tell me Ddraig, what can this new armor do? I already fell stronger than when I powered up to my maximum before, but what else is there?"_

 **[For starters you no longer have to wait ten seconds to Boost your power, now while wearing this you can Boost continuously. Not just that, all of your base stats have been increased to that of an Ultimate-Class Devil's level of abilities. Be advised though, this form has a time-limit of only 12 hours, once you hit that time-limit it'll take 3 hours to recharge before you can use this armor again, plus should it be damaged or even destroyed, repairing it will siphon off some your power and speed up the time-limit.]**

 _"Hmph, 12 hours? I never planned on waiting that long to finish this."_ Shirou thought confidently, he then said out loud. "Hey Kokabiel, on a scale from 1 to 10, how screwed are you?"

"You—GUAGH!"

 **[BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!]**

 **Play OST - Haikyuu - Battle of Concepts**

Before waiting for him to answer, Shirou powered up and charged at Kokabiel. Kokabiel got kicked in the chest and was sent flying backwards, Shirou then appeared above him and delivered a axe-kick followed by a punch to his face, Shirou then grabbed Kokabiel by his face and slammed him into the ground, finishing up by throwing him away to the side.

"Damn, that feels good." Shirou admired his new found abilities with interest and excitement. "Balance Breaker really does feel completely different feel, but its a good feeling nonetheless."

Kokabiel struggled to get back up and his expression was the opposite of Shirou's, he couldn't hide his frustration. "You damn monster."

"Look at the almighty Fallen-Angel leader now, I thought you were going to start a war all by yourself." Shirou ridiculed, finding this to be a joke. "Guess you didn't think this whole thing through."

"Shut up, this is only because of Shirōu Amakusa inferring!" Kokabiel growled. "If that never happened I'd of already won this battle!"

"That's what a war is you dumbass!" Shirou argued, brushing aside his excuse. "Fighting strong enemies, one after the after without warning or rest. What gives you the right to whine about it when you started this whole thing, and now you're gonna pay for it." He activated the Jets on his back and spread his Dragon wings. "You're gonna wish you never showed up in my town!"

With the addition of the jets and wings Shirou dashed at Kokabiel with incredible swiftness. Kokabiel tried shooting at him with Light attacks, but Shirou saw them and dodged them with ease, he fought with this armor so well you'd think he had for ages. Shirou got behind Kokabiel and give a heel kick to the Fallen-Angel which shook him.

Not wasting a second, the armored Dragon dashed in and delivered a knee kick to Kokabiel's jaw continued by an elbow to the cheek, then a punch in the center of his face and ending it with a kick on his solar plexus.

Kokabiel groaned as he pushed himself to summon another magic-circle and shot dozens of Orbs of Light at Shirou. The Red Dragon Emperor didn't move and just reached for his Sword. Now wielding Dyrnwyn, Shirou slashed out and swatted away all the incoming attacks like it was nothing.

Kokabiel was getting desperate, he couldn't think of anything that would work against Shirou at this point. While Shirou slightly lowered his weapon and sighed.

"I suppose this torture has gone on long enough. I'm ending this."

This reignited Kokabiel's anger, the way Shirou said it, as if he believed he could simply end the fight whenever he choose to and that was the end of it.

"And just does that mean?" Kokabiel narrowed his eyes. "This isn't over."

He was concerned and outclassed at this point, everyone could see that. But his Pride as a Cadre Fallen-Angel blinded him from acknowledging that fact. Though Shirou ignored his response and placed both his hands on the hilt of his Sword.

"Tell me, did you know that a Sword attack is stronger if you use both hands instead of just one?"

Now Kokabiel was just confused, in the middle of battle he was just asked a question like that, one that was ridiculously simple. It was like someone asking if they knew the sky was blue or that grass was green. It almost made Kokabiel think he was being mocked.

"Huh, what are you talking about?" Kokabiel asked irritated. "You fool, that should be perfectly obvious!"

Even some of the others were confused. But there were two who understood what was about to happen.

Those two were Kiba and Mika.

Because Mika is a strategist she plays attention to how Shirou fights with great detail and because Kiba was a Swordsman he always made sure to observe Shirou's ability in Swordplay as much as he could. Because of that they noticed a detail in Shirou whenever he used a Sword. He always swung his Sword with one hand, or in another case, Shirou has never swung his Sword with both hands.

It was because Dyrnwyn was a one-handed Sword and Shirou never really needed to use both arms. But considering how much stronger he has gotten since getting the Sword and the fact that he's now in a Balance Breaker state, the amount of power he could discharge from a two-handed swung is something not even they can predict.

"I don't think you realize…" Shirou spoke lift the blade above his head. "…Just how much stronger."

Shirou then brings down the blade and slashes with both hands.

BAAAAAAAANNNNNNGGGGGGG!

The result was an impact crashing into the ground with the force of megaton blast. It was like the combined force of a minefield was concentrated into one spot and all exploded at that some time. Shirou's slash always created a shockwave that shook that ground some much it was like a small earthquake and it made a large amount of dirt and dust explode upwards like a huge pillar. The fact that all this was caused by Shirou swinging his Sword with both hands was terrifying.

He didn't even Boost his strength.

As for Kokabiel who was the one the slash was aimed at. No one saw him after the attack hit which made them curious of his fate, though they curiosity was answered when he suddenly emerged from the dirt pillar. Kokabiel was in the sky with his ten wings wrapped around his body for defence, though he was still injured after taking that hit, he was lucky the attack did more damage to the ground.

Though Kokabiel had a long cut going from his shoulder to his waist, the cut itself was rather sallow so he was able to avoid the worst.

Kokabiel narrowed his eyes and looked down to send a death glare at where Shirou was standing. Only Shirou wasn't there anymore, in fact there was no longer a trace of him anywhere on the battlefield. Kokabiel started looking around trying to find him.

"Where is he?"

As Kokabiel asked himself that he heard a familiar sound behind him.

 **[BOOST! BOOST!]**

Hearing that made him turn around and he was just in time to see Shirou in point-blank range in front of him with his hand suddenly placed on his cut.

 _ **BOOSTED FATALITY!**_

 **[TRANSFER!]**

SLIIIIICCCCKKK!

"GGGUUAAHH!"

Pain shot through Kokabiel's entire before he even realized what was happening, his brain sent a shock throughout his whole nerve-system, the pain hit from head to toe so fast it was like being struck by lightning. The sallow cut on his body grew much large and was now a large gash that was almost fatal, it almost looked like Kokabiel was close to being cut in half by a large blade. A huge amount of blood sprayed from his open wound and he let out a howl of pain.

What Shirou just did was a new technique he created known as Boosted Fatality, it was a special ability that used the increased capabilities of his Balance Breaker. By using the Transfer on his opponent, rather than increasing their power he increased the depth and magnitude of their condition or nerve-system, more specifically their injuries. In short he could endless double the injuries and pain of his opponents until they were fatal.

With this power he could make a small cut into a large gash, or bruise into a broke bone or even make the pain of being punched into the pain of being hit by a wrecking ball. Plus in the hands of someone like Shirou, the potential of this power was terrifying.

Though Kokabiel was dealing with the pain that hit him so suddenly, Shirou didn't give him time to rest and immediately followed his assault by getting behind him, reached out and grabbed two of his wings wing by their base attached to his back.

"Let's see you grit those teeth!"

He tightened his grip and started to pull.

"AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHKKK!"

There was an unpleasant noise, one that was really hard to describe. It was a little like the sound of flesh and sinew being torn apart by bare hands. But the bloodcurdling scream Kokabiel produced, both from the shock and the pain was a good indication of the grotesque image. It felt as if two of his limbs were torn off. Blood was spewing from the small part of his wing still attached to his back.

The main reason he hardened his wings to make them as strong as steel was to avoid situations like this, sadly they weren't strong enough to stop Shirou. And with all the built up damage from his cut and the lose of two of his ten wings, he felt his energy being sapped away and was unable to keep himself aloft. Gravity took Kokablel, hurling him in a spiralling fall to the unforgiving ground.

CRASH!

Kokabiel crashed into the ground in the middle of the school field, dust fill the air and he just laid their. He was dying, having lived for so long he could tell his life was slipping away, even now he was barely conscious, the only think keeping him awake was the pain he was feeling. And because of that he could hear the sounds of the Boosted Gear powering up as Shirou was closing the distance.

 **[BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!]**

Shirou was coming down with the speed and momentum of a meteorite and held out his fist that was covered in a glowing white sphere of his own life-aura and bursting with pure power. Like Ren he covered his fist with Touki but because he was able to Boost his power the strength and aura surrounding his fist was on a whole other lever. It was so great it looked like his fist was 3x bigger.

 _ **BIG BANG DRAGON BLOW!**_

With a fierce battle-cry he brought down his fist and was descending towards Kokabiel intending to finish this.

"DAAAAMMMNNN YOOOUUUUU!"

Kokabiel couldn't do anything but watch as death was descending upon him and realizing that this was where he would meet his end all he could do was curse the enemy with nothing but pure hatred.

BAAAAANNNNGGGGG!

 **Music Off**

When Shirou fist struck, it caused a massive impact dead-centered in Kokabiel's gut. There was a deep dent in Kokabiel's stomach and the ground beneath was cracked as blood gushed out of his mouth. The effect of the punch was so fierce it caused another tremor and created a dust explosion around the two of them. Soon when the dust cleared only one figure remained.

That was Shirou in his Dragon armor, standing tall and proud as the victor of this battle and beneath him was a pile of battle feathers.

Kokabiel was dead, after a Fallen-Angel dies they don't leave a body behind and their soul fades away into nothingness. Those feathers were all that remained, the only proof that the being known as Kokabiel ever existed.

Everything was quiet now, like a peaceful and serene atmosphere that followed after a heavy storm had pasted. Without a doubt the life and death battle for this town was over. All their enemies were dead, Excalibur was destroyed and there were no casualties on their side.

A perfect victory.

"Shirou!"

Shirou turned when he heard Rias called out his name and saw the others running towards him. Akeno was carrying the still unconscious Asia, while Xenovia just stayed where she was.

"That was amazing." Rias praised him, genuinely amazed. "You won and saved the town."

"You're to easily amazed." Shirou replied, sounding arrogant. "It's me were talking about, there was no other way it could've ended."

"Even so, it's still surprise that you gained your Balance Breaker in the middle of the fight." Akeno reasoned. "How did that happen?"

"Turns out I had the power to do so this whole time." Shirou admitted nonchalant. "I just needed to learn how to bring it out."

"How'd you learn how?" Ren asked.

"I just needed a catalyst, something that would jump-start by mind and unlock my armor." Shirou explained. "Basically I needed to be mind-fucked and than overcome it."

"I get it, kind of like Kiba and his closure with his ghost friends." Mika compared.

Shirou nodded. "Yeah, but for me it was the whole getting my body jacked by the other me and than taking it back."

"That reminds me." Ren spoke out. "How the hell did you do that?"

"That's right, explain yourself." Rias demanded. "You still haven't told us what happened."

The others were of the same opinion, they all wanted answers and Shirou was the only one who could provide them.

"It's actually pretty simple. You see while inside my mind the other me was trying to incept my thoughts and drown away my sense of self and make me into an empty shell like one of those paralyzed vegetable people." Shirou described. "The idea was if I lose myself I would disappear and my body would be his. But I pushed him back and took back control of my body."

"But how!" Koneko stepped forward and asked.

She was displaying more emotion than usual, which surprised some of the others. It seemed like she was really interested in the last part of what Shirou said.

"How where you able to stay in control?" Koneko continued to asked, really wanting an answer. "For someone that strong, his grasp on you must have been incredibly deep."

"True it was, in fact I almost didn't make it." Shirou answered, choosing not to question Koneko's change in personality. "But the key was my strength of will."

"…Strength of will?" Koneko repeated confused, as if she expected something more. "…That's all it took?"

"That's all you need." Shirou reasoned. "When your mind is being overwhelmed and you feel yourself slipping away the only thing that'll save you is your own willpower. Mental strength means being able to withstand anything that attacks you from within and hold on to who your truly are. That is what it means to have strength of will, and my will was strong enough to push back that dark force."

Shirou's words where find with conviction and insight. It wasn't logic or reason but rather spirit and emotion, those were what helped him overcome the darkness sleeping inside his heart and that was the source of his indomitable will that surrendered to no one.

Of course Shirou had no intention of revealing that the dark soul sleeping inside him could return if his will ever broke. That would only cause unnecessary concern.

And he didn't want to deal with that.

"But, even though it's simple that doesn't mean everyone can do it." Shirou shrugged. "Even the other me was surprised I pulled it off. When you get right down to it everyone's will is different and while some people can do there'll always be some who can't."

Now Koneko looked down at the ground, like the answer she heard only made her upset. " …I see it depends on the person." Her tone sounded depressed. "…Only some people can do it."

Shirou didn't understand why she was so upset or even why she wanted to know in the first place. In fact out everyone there a majority of them didn't know what the deal was with Koneko right now. But Rias knew exactly why she was acting this way and it made her sad to.

 _"Koneko."_ Rias thought saddened. "Anyway, I'm glad this whole ordeal is over." She said, attempting to change the subject.

"Gotta admit though, I didn't expect things between you and Kokabiel to be so one-sided." Ren added.

"It wasn't really all that impressive when you get right down to it." Shirou said with honesty. "Sure he had power, but like the other me said he wasted it. And even with all the experience in the world, having power but not knowing how to use will always lead to your downfall."

"Fufufu. I concur."

A sudden voice spoke, it was the voice of a young man around their age but it wasn't from anyone in the group. This made everyone put their guard up.

The first one to realize it was Shirou who looked up at the sky, prompting everyone else to do the same.

FLASH!

Suddenly the barrier that surrounded the school for the purpose of fighting shattered away and the light of the full moon that brightened the dark night sky was revealed. The thing responsible for destroying the barrier was a figure that resembled a ball of light. It descended while cutting the abyss sky by sending out a white light. The being of light stopped after landing on the ground a few feet away from the others and his appearance was now visible.

A white plated armor. There were jewels across various locations on the armor. It also had armor on the face so the expression of the person couldn't be seen. The wings on his back had eight energy feathers that were glowing a deep blue like a divine glow in the dark night. But one look at the armor was enough to know who this person was. It had a different shape and colour, but it was similar….… It was identical to the "Boosted Gear Balance Breaker". Possibly everyone standing there looking at this person all thought the same thing. So all of them understood at the same time. They understood what the thing in front of them was.

The Vanishing Dragon.

The one opposite to the "Welsh Dragon", the "Vanishing Dragon". His armor was the opposite of Shirou's armor. Shirou's armor was imposing and intimidating like just looking at it made you feel threatened, it was powerful and oppressive. But this white armor was different, it was fascinated and radiant, a dazzling sight that resembled a work of art. To describe it in a single word would be, Beautiful.

SHIVERS…

Shirou however felt differently. Just being near him sent chills down Shirou's spine. He couldn't explain it but he just didn't feel right, it wasn't like the feeling he got when facing the Holy-Swords or against Light magic, but he still felt some kind of ominous feeling from the being standing before him. It felt as though rather than his nature as a Devil, it was as if nature as a Dragon was completely rejecting this person's existence.

"You've awakened your Balance Breaker." The Vanishing Dragon spoke, his voice echoed like Shirou in his armor. "I suppose I should congratulate you."

He spoke to Shirou in a manner that sounding like he was both praising him and looking down on him.

Rias narrowed her eyes at this person and stepped forward.

"Who are you?" Rias questioned.

The Vanishing Dragon kept his gaze on Shirou, but still answered Rias.

"I'm sure you've already realized." He responded. "I am the Vanishing Dragon, or better known as the White Dragon Emperor."

CLAAAAASSSSHHHHHH!

No sooner than those words left his mouth, Shirou rushed in like a bullet train and cocked back his fist, ready to attack. It took a fraction of a second for him to close in on this new foe and following that he punched his fist at him. The White Dragon wasn't fazed and instead he followed suit by throwing a punch himself. The two traded punches at the same time, their fists clashing together, creating a shockwave so strong it shattered the ground beneath them. In fact it was so powerful that it almost condensed the air around the two of them and resulted in the being sent flying backwards.

They both landed on their feet, a few steps away from where they stood before the clash.

 _"Fast, he reacted to my top speed like it was normal."_ Shirou thought, irked. _"So much for catching him off guard."_

"Heh, a good punch, as I thought you are strong." The Vanishing Dragon praised, somewhat interested. "Considering you are my Arch-Rival, anything less would be disappointing."

"That punch was just a hello shot." Shirou claimed, with the same tone. "Still good job blocking. But I wonder, if you can block a real punch." The last part was almost like a challenge.

"Shirou, do you know this person?" Rias asked,

She was still surprised by the suddenness of all this and was trying to get a grasp on the situation. The others weren't much different.

Shirou shook his head. "No, but I do know who he is. He's The Vanishing Dragon, apparently the two of us are wielders of two Sacred Gears that carry the spirits of two Rival Dragons and whenever the users meet they fight to the death." He explained. "And it looks like he came here to do just that, can't say I mind though. I wouldn't mind testing the limits of my new armor."

Shirou's tone was confident as usual but also traced with excitement and interest. Now that he had this new power he more than anything wanted to use that power against a strong opponent and since Kokabiel wasn't close to fitting the bill he felt disappointed. Now here was someone with the same type of Dragon armor as him and from the looks of things he had the power to give Shirou a good fight.

He always knew he had the face the White Dragon Emperor someday, ever since Ddraig told him about it. And it looked like that day had come sooner than he expected.

Sadly though for Shirou enthusiasm, the Vanishing Dragon lowered his fists.

"As attractive as the idea of fighting you sounds, I'm afraid you're mistaken." He informed him. "I didn't come here for a fight."

"…What?" Shirou asked, feeling completely lost now. "What are you talking about? Why else would you be here then?"

"The truth is, I came here to retrieve Kokabiel." The Vanishing Dragon admitted. "I was ordered by Azazel to bring him back alive if possible."

Now everyone was wide eyed.

"You're saying you belong to the side of the Fallen-Angels?" Rias asked shocked.

"There are many Sacred Gear users that are members of Grigori, I just happen to be one of them." He reasoned. "Still, considering how things turned out, Azazel will have to accept the fact that Kokabiel and the others are dead."

"Wait, you were watching the battle?" Kiba asked.

"Correct, I watched from start to finish." The White Dragon Emperor answered. "It was quite entertaining."

"Entertaining? Is that all you have to say?" Akeno questioned with spite, rightfully so considering they were all fighting for their lives and now this person appeared and told them he was just sitting back and having fun watching the whole time. "We almost died countless times, you never thought to try and lead us some help."

"I don't see the problem, you're all alive and you won in the end right?" He brushed off, not feeling like he did anything wrong. "Besides, if it reached the point where you couldn't win, I would've intervened. Though that would have been a disappointing outcome."

This only served to infuriate them even more. He was acting like their lives or the fate of this town was a trivial matter and that watching them struggle just for the sake of his own entertainment was perfectly fine, he was completely looking down on them. If they weren't drained and injured from fighting just now some of them would have been tempted to attack him.

 **[Are just going to you ignore me, White-One.]**

Ddraig sudden spoke, this time his voice could be heard by everyone.

"The Dragon hand talked?" Rias spoke surprised.

 **[So you were awake, Red-One.]**

The White Dragon wings started to emit a voice and the energy feather were blink like Shirou's gauntlet. armour jewel was also glowing white.

The ones residing in the Gears were communicating.

 **[We finally met, but in a situation like this.]**

 **[That's all right. It's our destiny to fight one day. Things like this happen.]**

 **[But White-One. I can't feel the hostility from you like before.]**

 **[Red-One. Your hostility is incredibly low as well.]**

 **[Looks like both of us have things that interest us more than fighting.]**

 **[That's how it is. We should be having fun by ourselves for a while. It's not bad like this sometimes, right? Let's meet again, Ddraig.]**

 **[That would also be fun, huh. See you then, Albion.]**

The conversation was between Sekiryuutei and Hakuryuukou. Both of them gave a farewell, which made Shirou sigh since he knew a fight at this point wasn't going to happen.

"I was I could fight you right here and now, but I guess we'll have to put it on hold." Shirou said disappointed. "But I don't plan to wait long, next time we'll settle this for real."

"Next time huh?" The White Dragon Emperor repeated, not minding the fact that he was just challenged. "I look forward to it, I was actually the most impressed by you. Not only did I see the resurrection of Shirōu Amakusa but I saw you overcoming his possession, something I thought was impossible. This was truly worth the trip."

The Vanishing Dragon then flew upwards and began to take his leave, but before he did he turned around one last time and faced Shirou.

"Before I go I have a question. When you swung your Sword at Kokabiel with both hands you could have killed him right then if you wanted to, yet you purposely made it so the attack only grazed him, why?"

Shirou answered immediately.

"Because I wanted to test out my new technique and this was the perfect time. It would've been a waste not to. Besides it didn't change the outcome in the end."

The Vanishing Dragon stopped after hearing his answer and then followed by let out an amused huff and turning around.

"You truly are interesting." And with that he once again turned into a ball of white light and flew up. Flying off into the night sky so fast he had vanished in the blink of an eye. He came and left in a flash and was stills shrouded in mystery, right now there was silence as no one knew what to say.

"Rias."

The silence was broken why they heard the voice of Sona Sitri walking up to them, along with her Queen Tsubaki.

"Sona." Rias greeted with a smile.

"By the looks of things, I take it you defeated Kokabiel." Sona addressed the main topic.

"That's right, Shirou made sure of that." Rias pointed towards him.

"Shirou?" Sona looked and was surprised when she saw the person Rias was pointing at was one clad in Dragon armor. "Is that…?"

"Yeah," Shirou responded, not waiting for her to finish. He then turned and made in a small flash his armor disassembled and vanished back into his gauntlet, returning Shirou back into his normal state. "It's my Balance Breaker."

"You awakened your Balance Breaker." Sona spoke impressed, before smiling. "Looks like you really didn't need reinforcements."

"Umm… Hmm…"

Everyone then turned the sound of a girl's voice that was muffled and groaning. Asia who had finally regained consciousness was still being carried by Akeno looked up and opened her eyes, she then turned to see Shirou and the others.

"Shirou-san? Everyone?"

"Asia, you're finally awake." Rias said relieved.

"Yeah weird." Mika said scratching her head. "You slept through the whole thing."

Asia blinked confused. Shirou just looked to Rias and said.

"Rias, explain to Asia everything she missed."

Rias blinked for a second but then nodded. "Umm, okay."

"Mika." Shirou then turned to his Sister. "Come on, we're going home."

Mika ran over to her Brother, placed her hand over his own and they began to exit the scene.

"We'll see you guys later."

Shirou said in a way that suggested he was completely done for today and didn't want to argue about it. Considering everything that had just happened everyone just let him leave, feeling that he earned that much at least.

"Shirou-kun!" Kiba called out, this made Shirou stop along with Mika. Kiba looked down at the ground as if he was trying to find the words, until he just came out and said it. "Thank you."

Even though Shirou stopped he didn't turn around to face him and gave a simple reply.

"You're welcome."

And with that Shirou started to walk away again and continued to make his leave, with Mika beside him.

* * *

A short while later in the depths of the Underworld. In a solitary yet refined and very expensive room the Sliver-haired maid of the Gremory family walked to the edge of the room where a dignified throne stood, and sitting upon that throne was a man dressed in a noble attire with a demonic looking cape, this was the man who ruled the Underworld as its King, Grayfia's master and the older brother of Rias; Sirzechs Lucifer, the Crimson-Satan.

"Those are all the details I have received."

Grayfia had just finished informing her King of the report of the battle against Kokabiel.

"I see." Sirzechs' response was simple but he had a very pleased smile on his face.

"My Lord?" Grayfia questioned his expression.

"Isn't it amazing Grayfia?" Sirzechs asked his Queen. "Not long ago when I meet him his power was already that of a High-Class Devil and now he has reached a stage where he overpowered a Cadre Fallen-Angel the likes of Kokabiel." He was referring to Shirou. "He truly is a fascinating young man, isn't he?"

Grayfia didn't seem to share his attitude. "My Lord, that's not the main issue. Please try to remember, not only was the truth about the Primordial God's death revealed to them, but the fact that Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada was able to break free from his containment." She reminded him. "Even if it was only temporary, this is still a troubling matter."

"The matter of God's death couldn't be helped, Kokabiel was trying to start a War so doing something that could cause discord was bound to happen." Sirzechs reasoned. "I'm sure he couldn't wait to tell someone that truth."

"And what of the other matter?"

"Why is it so wrong for him to know? In fact I believe he had a right to know." Sirzechs admitted with a serious expression. "That darkness was always with him, the fact that it was sealed in the first place was a blessing. But to have him carry that burden for so many years, all the while keeping it hidden from him, I can only see that as a cruelty. In the end it was always his right to learn of this."

"And I agree, but still where can he go from here?" Grayfia asked, still concerned. "Even if he stopped it this time what if the darkness surfaces again? In the end it could end up destroying him, I know you realize that."

"That is a possibility, but still I'm not worried." Sirzechs then smiled without worry. "I've seen how strong his will and resolve is and so I know he won't be broken here, instead he'll overcome this and take furthers steps on his path, thus becoming much greater. That is the nature of Shirou Tsukiharu."

"You seem to have a lot of faith in this boy." Grayfia commented.

"I do, after all I truly believe that he will become the catalyst for great changes. Not just in the Underworld, but for this entire Era." Sirzechs stood up from his throne. "And I believe it's time we made some changes ourselves."

With that The Devil King started walking and was heading for the door, intending to leave his throne room. Grayfia followed one step behind and they made their leave.

But it was just as he said. For this moment, everything was going to change.

For better or worse.

* * *

Somewhere, hovering over the sky's of Japan, two figures possessing great power meet in an encounter that not even God could have predicted.

The first was the Vanishing Dragon, still in his Dragon armor who was on his way to meet Azazel, as to report the events of what unfolded in the battle against Kokabiel. However he was stopped by the second figure.

This one was rather peculiar to say the least.

The appearance of this individual is that of a cute young girl with long black hair down to her hips. However despite her innocent appearance she was far from innocent, nor was she human. Although her long black hair makes this feature difficult to notice, her ears differ from a normal human's as they have pointed tips. Her attire consists of a black Gothic Lolita fashion.

But what really stood out was her eyes, they were dark grey eyes that had reptilian slitted pupils. But beyond that they felt empty. Not just devoid of colour, but devoid of any form of life or emotion. Eyes without a soul, almost like staring into an abyss.

Though what the White Dragon Emperor was paying attention to weren't her eyes, but the power her felt from her, and who could blame him. To say it overwhelming would be a gross understatement, it was astronomical. It was like the powers of everyone in the world that was felt up until now were scrubs, even Sirzechs was a pebble before this titanic force of nature. It almost felt like her power was infinite….

…No. It wouldn't be wrong to say her power _was_ infinite.

The White Dragon Emperor certainly felt so, and yet he said nothing. Neither did the being standing before him. And so the one who broke the silence was Albion.

 **[What a surprise. Not once did I imagine I would see you. Ophis.]**

"Albion." The now named Ophis spoke in a quiet and emotionless tone. "It's been a long time."

 **[Care to explain why you are here? One such as yourself who favours solitude must have a reason for appearing before others.]**

"I, have came to talk to you." Ophis said pointing at him.

Not referring to Albion but inside the one wearing the armor.

"Oh, the Strongest existence in this world has come personally to speak with me?" He asked in a joking manner. "I don't whether I should feel honored or not."

"I, want you to join me."

After hearing Ophis say that, something he didn't expect at all. He became somewhat interested to see where this was going.

"Join you?" The White Dragon Emperor repeated. "Explain."

"You, are the Hakuryuukou of this generation, one Stronger than any that came before you. And, you have gather a team of other strong beings. I, want strong individuals to help me reach my goal." Ophis elaborated. "That, is why I ask you to join me."

"An interesting reason, though I won't ask how you know all that." He replied nonchalant. "While I am curious to know what the Infinite Dragon God would desire to the point of gathering others I must ask, what's in it for me?"

"Wouldn't you like to fight against the Asgard?"

Just by hearing Ophis say those words he was silent. He didn't utter a word but his hands started shaking and became closed fists, while his whole body was trembling with excitement. And though his face was hidden by his helmet his expression had one of that which belong to a person who couldn't contain the urge to make a battle-hungry grin.

"Before you had my interest. But now you have my attention." He answered, still excited. "Now, tell me more."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Tsukiharu residence. Shirou was in his bedroom having just finished changing out of his combat suit and now wearing his normal casual clothes. After he finished getting changed, he sat down on his bed and shortly after that the door opened.

Entering his room was Mika who had also changed out of the clothes she fought in, now where her usual attire as well. She walked up to her brother and sat beside him on his bed, it was obvious that even after the events of tonight. Or rather, because of the events of tonight, they didn't intend on sleeping just yet.

"You think Rias told Asia about what happened?" Mika asked slumped.

"She should have by now." Shirou answered, shrugging his shoulders. "Hope she can get through it all without fainting again."

"Yeah, but still." Mika looked concerned. "What'll happen than, when it really sinks in that God's dead. Will she be okay."

"It'll be tough, but she'll have to accept it. It's not like you can change the facts no matter how much you hate them." Shirou said, not sympathetic. "Besides, Asia's tougher than people give her credit for. She'll get over this, even if it's not right away."

Mika smiled. "Yeah, I guess that's true."

Though Mika's smile dropped and she leaned in closer to Shirou.

"Moving on, what do you think about all this?" She asked. "All that stuff we learned about Mom's heritage and about what you've got inside of yourself."

"It was a major bombshell to drop I agree, but at the end of the day it doesn't change anything." Shirou said, feeling at ease. "This isn't any different from when Xenovia told us about Mom and Dad, when all said and done the only version I ever knew of her was Mikoto Tsukiharu, the one who raised us. Even if she had this thing inside her before and even if I've got it now. We'll deal with it like we always do."

"I get it." Mika said, now feeling at ease herself. "No matter what happened back than or what might happen later down the road, as long as the two of us are together we'll be okay. After all we've always found a way."

"Yeah." Shirou nodded. "No matter what happens I won't let this thing chain me down."

Mika nodded. "I believe you."

Shirou then yawned and stretched out his arms. "Now then, that's enough for today, let's get some rest."

"Okay." Mika agreed and laid down, resting herself comfortably on Shirou's bedspread.

Shirou blinked before he sighed. "This never has a good answer but, what are you doing?"

"I'm sleeping in your bed tonight." Mika answered as if it was obvious.

"And why's that?" Shirou questioned.

Instead of answering Mika just reached out and gripped his hand with both of her hands, which surprised Shirou. Though he become more surprised when he felt her hands shaking. Looking up he could see her whole body was trembling.

 **Play OST - Gintama - Women who ask 'What's more important work or me deserve a German Suplex**

"…Please, just for tonight." Mika's tone was different, she now spoke with an almost child-like innocence. "I… Don't want to be away from you yet."

"…Mika." Shirou spoke softly this time.

"It's just, back than when you got taken over. I was afraid, you were there and than suddenly gone and I didn't know what to do or if you were ever going to come back." Mika now had tears forming in her eyes. "I was trying to hold it in, but the truth is. That was the most afraid I've ever been. And I'm still afraid, that if I leave you'll disappear again."

Shirou reached up his hand and used it to lift her face towards him. Then he tenderly wiped her tears away and set her hand down. "You always worry to much. I'm not going anywhere, not while you're still around." He reassured her with a soft, caring tone. "Why can't you believe that I'll be alright?"

Mika sniffed and than smiled at him. "I'm your little sister, it's my job to believe in you and worry about you at the same time."

Shirou let out a some chuckle. "Than little sisters are a real pain."

Shirou than laid down himself and rested his head on his pillow, while Mika moved in and embraced her brother like he was a pillow, resting her head on his side while wrapping her arms around his arm. This time Shirou didn't complain.

"Hey Big Bro." Mika spoke quietly. "We'll always be together right."

"That's right." Shirou answered with certainty. "Now until the end of time, I won't let anything stop me."

Mika felt more at peace and closed her eyes. "Come what may, I'll always be with you."

Right now they weren't worrying about the winds of change that were coming in the future. Or the horrors of the dark truths resurfacing from the past. All they cared about was this moment in time right now.

No what what direction things turned or what unsettled burdens would reappear, one thing would never change.

Those two would never be separated.

 **Music Off**

* * *

 **That's the chapter. First of all Kokabiel's dead, I decided I prefer to just kill him instead of having him beaten and than imprisoned, plus it's more of Shirou's style to kill his opponents. But still, he got thrashed by Shirōu Amakusa and than Shirou's Balance Breaker, the just can't get a break. Speaking of Shirou's Balance Breaker, I wanted to introduce it in a big way and I figured this was a good time. And yes, Shirou can now use Balance Breaker whenever he wants, which is good because he'll be needing it.**

 **As for Shirōu Amakusa as you saw he's incredibly strong but that still wasn't his maximum, I wanted to demonstrate his superior power and overwhelming skill, his fighting is actually very similar to Shirou's, in that he has power and is smart about how he uses it. And make no mistake we haven't seen the last of him, he obviously wasn't going to break Shirou's will because well, let's face it that's impossible. But in due time he'll resurface and it'll be in even crazier circumstances.**

 **Now for Vali, I made his entrance different from the canon because I didn't want him stopping the fight. Plus his and Shirou's interaction is to show you what kind of Rivals they'll be. It won't be like the pitiful joke of a Rivalry where one is clearly above the other in everywhere way like it was in the canon, it'll be as true Rivalry against two strong fighters who love fighting. Plus The two of them are a lot alike.**

 **I also added the last scene with Ophis because, we hear about it happening but we never actually saw it so I decided to put it in this story, I wrote the be like how I pictured it happened.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review, if you like the story click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	24. Past Revealed And New Relationships

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This will be the start of a new Arc, so I decided to start strong and cover a lot in this one. That including wrapping up somethings that were leftover and moving the plot along. I also plan on finally answering some questions in this chapter, not to mention I added a little something I think some of you will enjoy Wink, Wink. Hope you all enjoy.**

 **Note: Could everyone who keeps leaving a review just to say "please update soon" stop it. I'm already stressed enough as it is to make sure I can update before too much times passes and I've already started writing other stories that I haven't posted yet and you guys are killing me with pressure every time you ask that.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Past Revealed And New Relationships**

* * *

It was a bright and sunny morning in the town of Kuoh and three days have passed since the fierce battle against Kokabiel had ended. both the town and the lives of everyone living in it were saved, though the vast majority of the town's people never had even the slightest clue on how close to death they were, there were a few who did.

In particular, the one who saved the town and defeated Kokabiel; Shirou Tsukiharu who was currently in the Old School building of Kuoh Academy, making his way to the Occult Research Club room. Walking alongside him was Ren Todo, another person who fought in the great battle and was also going to the club room. While walking the two of them were engaged in conversation.

"So, how do you feel after three days of training?" Ren asked. "Are you used to it now?"

Shirou nodded. "Yeah, it felt natural when I used my armor during the fight but that was because I needed full strength the whole time, during training it was like revving up a car engine at full throttle right out of the gate. Almost made me feel jet-lagged." He described. "Now after a few days I have more control, plus I can regulate how much power I use."

"That's a relief, it would've been hell training with Balance Breaker that was stuck on full-burst." Ren said relieved. "Now we can move on to battle training."

The two of them were talking about Shirou's Boosted Gear Balance Breaker, the Scale-mail armored form that Shirou had unlocked during his last battle. These past three days the two of them had been training to help Shirou go more accustom to his power and get better at wielding it. For reasons such as cleaning up the aftermath of the battle everyone had free time, this was how they spent theirs.

Now though Shirou along with the rest of the Peerage had been called by Rias, she claimed she had an important announcement for them to hear. And Ren decided to tag along, at this point Shirou was the only one who had yet to arrive.

"So why do you think Rias called for an urgent summons all of a sudden?" Ren asked.

Shirou shrugged. "Who knows, hopefully it's at least worth the trip."

After reaching the door to the club's meeting room Shirou opened the door and the two walked in, only to see something shocking to say the least. Inside was everyone sitting in their usual spots, Rias sitting behind her desk, Asia and Mika sitting on one of the couches and Kiba standing by the wall. But that wasn't what surprised. The surprise was the person sitting on the other couch.

"Hey, Sekiryuutei."

Sitting there while wearing the Kuoh Academy girls student uniform was Xenovia, who had just greeted Shirou.

Shirou didn't respond and just looked towards the others. "Any of you want to explain what _this_ is all about?" He pointed his finger at Xenovia.

"Just watch, this is gonna be good." Mika answered, looking like she was trying to contain her laughter.

PA!

Then black leathery bat-like wings grew out of Xenovia's back. It's the wings of a Devil. Meaning only one thing.

Rias smiled at Xenovia from her desk. "Everyone, I would like to officially welcome our newest Knight."

"Wait, what?" Ren asked, thrown for a loop.

"Son of an Asian whore." Shirou muttered with a face-palm. "Why the sudden 180°?"

"I found out that God is gone. So I turned into a Devil as a self-abandonment. I received a "Knight" piece from Rias Gremory. It seems like I'm not that great, while Durandal is. So I was able to become a Devil with one piece. And I was also placed in this school. From now on, I'm a Second-Year student and also a member of the Occult Research Club. Let's get along, Shirou-Kun." Xenovia says while breathing with her nose.

"Those words don't suit you at all." Ren told in bluntly.

"I copied Irina, but it looks like it's not easy."

Chuckling Kiba shook his head. "It was a rather shocking development, to say the least."

"Xenovia-san, are you sure this is what you want?" Asia asked, still concerned about all this.

"Yeah, but even if it's not you can't exactly take it back." Mika reminded her, not really concerned.

"Yes. I'm a Devil now. I can't go back. No, maybe this was a good thing. Hmm, but since God is gone, my life was a failure. But serving under a Devil who was once my enemy is….. Even if she is a Sister of a Devil King….…"

Xenovia started to hold her head down while mumbling something. Then, she received some damage because she prayed just like Asia.

 _"Oh great, another one."_ Shirou thought, watching her Xenovia pray and get hurt.

"Ha, it's never not funny." Mika laughed at the scene.

Rias folded her arms together. "It'll be nice having a Durandal wielder in our ranks. With this, you and Yuuto will be the Sword fighters covering our left and right flanks." She then clapped her hands together. "And with this, it's the birth of the Gremory Peerage's complete set. Now that we have a full squad we can face any challenges head-on."

"Oh yeah, I just realized." Ren noted. "You've got a "Queen", two "Rooks", one guy worth eight "Pawns", two Bishops wherever the hell the second one is and now two Knights. All the pieces are used up."

"Hmph, yeah but strength-wise, I alone am worth more than all the other pieces put together." Shirou boasted. "And I proved that the other day."

Like always everyone smiled at Shirou's arrogant demeanour, which seemed weird but it was normal for this group. Besides, he wasn't technically wrong.

"By the way, where's Irina?" Kiba asked.

"Irina returned to headquarters along with the five Excaliburs including mine. The "fragments" that act as the cores were retrieved in that state. So the mission of retrieving it was accomplished." Xenovia explained. "If they have the cores, they can use alchemy to make the Holy-Swords again."

"Was it alright to give them your Excalibur?" Ren asked.

"I have to give them the Excalibur back just in case. Unlike the Durandal, there are other wielders that could be chosen. Having Durandal is enough for me. When I mentioned the absence of God to them, they became silent. So I became an outsider for knowing the absence of God. The Church hates outsiders and heresy very much. Even if that person is the wielder of Durandal, they will cut them off. Exactly the same way as the incident with Asia Argento." She laughed at herself. "And after I was kicked out, I found myself remembering what you said, about vanity and how they can't accept anything that's inconvenient to them."

She was referring to the things Shirou said about the Church the last time they were here.

Mika nodded. "Yeah, it was easy enough to deny and argue with at the time, but after you actually experience it, that's a completely different matter."

"I realized that it was an important secret for the Church and it could never be allowed to be revealed, it's just." Xenovia's hand started to shake. "I devoted my life to the Church and God, it was the honor of my life to became the wielder of Durandal and then Excalibur. Maybe it was naive but, I just assumed that even if I knew the truth they would find a solution another than just casting my aside."

"People are always good at saying things that sound good but in the end, it's all about looking good." Shirou explained with insight. "That's a fact as old as time, as long as you fit into their system they'll make you feel as special as you want, but once you take even a single step over the line they'll give you the boot. The Church is just one of the many that follow that principle."

"Irina was lucky. Even if she wasn't in the battle because of the wounds, she ended up not knowing the truth. She has a stronger belief than me. If she found out about God, I don't know what would have happened to her."

* * *

 **Flashback, Yesterday**

 _At the airport Xenovia who was wearing the Kuoh Academy female uniform was facing Irina who was wearing a grey business suit and holding a large briefcase that was carrying the Excalibur cores. While Xenovia looked stoic like usual, Irina looked at her former partner with contempt and disappointment._

 _"You have all the Excalibur cores now. There should be no problem re-forging those cores into Holy Swords. At this point, they only have to get the Alchemist to take care of that for them." Xenovia said very business-like but it was obvious she didn't what to be. "Irina, you should be proud, you accomplished your mission."_

 _"Oh yes I know, I just wish you did it with me." Irina said, continuing to look at Xenovia in a negative way._

 _"Yes, I feel the same way." Xenovia said, causing Irina to finally lose it._

 _"Tell me why?!" Irina shouted. "Why did you let yourself be reborn as a Devil and I can't understand why the Church would just accept it like they did too. You know what you are? You're a traitor."_

 _And with that Irina began to walk away with tears in her eyes, heading towards her plane._

* * *

"A traitor huh? Well, in the end it was for the best." Shirou agreed with Xenovia's decision. "Irina's a freaking girl-scout when it comes to God and the Church, she'd fall to pieces if you immediately told her the truth."

"Yes, I know." Xenovia nodded.

"Moving on." Rias got everyone's attention. "The Church made contact with us Devils. More precisely, the Maou talk about this incident. They said, "We would like to make contact with you because of unclear and dishonest actions of the Fallen-Angels even though we feel unsatisfactory about this". They also apologized about Balba because it was their mistake for letting him escape in the past."

Shirou groaned. "Sounds like a political problem."

"But this school is truly terrifying. Because there's another Sister of a Devil King attending this school." Xenovia says it while making a sigh.

"It's actually not as terrifying as you'd think." Shirou chipped in. "Those two aren't anywhere near as threatening as the title "Devil King's Sister" would suggest."

"Do you enjoy putting me down, Shirou?" Rias questioned with half-lidded eyes.

"I just speak the truth." Shirou brushed off. "If it makes you feel bad then you need to get your act together."

"So eloquent." Mika commented.

Rias just sighed and continued. "The truth about this incident was sent to the God-side and the Devils' side by the Governor-General of the Fallen-Angels, Azazel. The theft of the Excalibur was an action taken by Kokabiel only. The other leaders didn't know about it. He planned to break the tension between the Three Factions. Because he tried to start another war, he planned to send one of own to stop Kokabiel personally."

"And I'm guessing that someone was the Vanishing Dragon." Kiba guessed. "Though it ended without the Vanishing Dragon entering the battle. Still they probably planned to stop the rampage done by one of them by sending someone from their organization."

"There would also be a meeting between the representatives of the Angels, Devils and Azazel. Apparently there is something Azazel wants to talk about. I heard that maybe Azazel would be apologizing about Kokabiel then. Though it's suspicious if Azazel would apologize." Rias said it with a disgusted expression. "But that's also troubling." Rias said crossing her arms. "This means we can confirm the Vanishing Dragon belongs to the side of the Fallen-Angels."

"That's right." Xenovia said, as if she knew it was true. "Azazel is gathering Sacred Gear possessors who have a "Longinus". I don't know what he is thinking, but it's definitely something not good. The "Vanishing Dragon" is the top fighter among them. I heard that he is the fourth or fifth Strongest out of all the strong people there including the leaders of Grigori." She then looked at Shirou. "At this point, I can't be certain because I've never seen him fight, but he is far Stronger than Kokabiel, you who is his rival should be careful."

"Fourth Strongest?" Shirou repeated, almost sounding disappointed. "So he's not number one, that sucks."

"Of course that's what you'd focus on." Ren said shrugging his arms.

"We were also invited to that meeting. We have to report about the incident at the meeting because we were involved." Rias informed them.

Everyone had a shocked expression on their faces, being surprised by Rias' words. Well obviously. Anyone would get surprised if they were told to stay in the place with a meeting between the most powerful and important people were going to gather.

Xenovia then looked at Asia. "…That's right. I will apologize to Asia Argento. Since God didn't exist, then his love and help didn't as well. I'm sorry Asia Argento, I said so many horrible things to you. Hit me much as you want."

Xenovia bows her head down. The Japanese way of apologizing. Her expression didn't change so you can't tell if she means it or not.

"….….…No, I don't intend to do something like that." Asia shook her head and gave her a bright smile, she bright it was almost sparkling. "Xenovia-san, I'm enjoying my current lifestyle. Even though I'm a Devil now, I met someone….… People who are important to me. I am happy because of the place I live in now and the people I have met."

"….…So only you and I are the only Christians that found out about the absence of God. I won't be able to say something like a divine punishment to you now. So a heretic huh? I was a Holy Sword user who was admired, but now a heretic huh. I can't forget about how their eyes and attitudes changed when they saw me." There was sadness in Xenovia's eyes.

Xenovia turned to Shirou and Mika this time. "…I owe the two of you an apology as well. I said so many terrible things about you and your parents, all the while not realizing the hardship your family went through and the burden your Mother was forced to carry." She bowed her head again. "Hit me as much as—

POW!

BANG!

Before she could finish what she was saying Shirou struck in that second, his left arm connecting with Xenovia's cheek. The girl may as well weighed as much as a piece of paper with how easily she was sent flying into the opposite wall.

Rias, Kiba, and Asia looked as if they were expecting this and just shook their heads while Ren just chuckled a bit. Mika was clapping her hands approvingly..

"All is forgiven." Shirou told her as she fell to the floor.

"For future reference, never tell Broxeed he can hit you." Mika advised. "For your own health."

"Thank you for accepting my apology regardless." Xenovia got up with a swollen cheek and headed for the door. "Then I will be leaving. There's a lot of things I need to know about before transferring to this school."

Xenovia tries to leave the room.

"U..umm!"

Asia stops Xenovia.

"On the next weekend, I'm going to go out with some of my classmates. Would you also like to join, Xenovia-san?" Asia says it with a smile.

Xenovia had widened her eyes in shock and then gave a bitter smile. "Next time then. This time I'm not interested. Except….."

"Except?"

Xenovia then said it with a smile to Asia.

"Can you take me around the school next time?"

"Yes!" Asia also answers with a smile.

"I will swear it in the name of my Holy-Sword, Durandal." Xenovia looked to Kiba now. "I also would like to have a battle with the Holy-Demonic Sword user over there as well."

"Alright. I won't lose next time." Kiba also replied with a smile brimming with confidence.

"And though I'm not confident I'll win." Xenovia said to Shirou. "I'll like to have another battle with your Dyrnwyn, this time with Durandal."

Shirou crossed his arms behind his head and said lazily. "I'll accept any challenge, just don't expect me to take accept responsibility when you get brutally injured."

After confirming that Xenovia left the room.

Oddly enough though, a few seconds after she walked out of the room, Akeno walked in. And her expression was not a happy one.

Seeing her expression, Rias' expression became a downcast one. "Akeno, any news on Koneko?"

Akeno just shook her head upset. "I'm afraid not, she still won't come out."

"I see." Rias said, looking down.

"Wait, back up a bit." Shirou spoke up. "What's this about Koneko, and why all sad faces?"

Rias, Kiba and Akeno all looked upset and remained silent for a bit. Then Rias let out a small sigh."…I didn't want to keep this from you, it's just I never thought it was my place to say. But now that I think of it Shirou, we all heard your secrets just the other day without permission so I wouldn't be far to keep this from you."

"Keep what from us exactly?" Mika asked, just as interested.

"I'll tell you a certain story. It's a story of two Cat Sisters." Rias began. "The Cat Sisters were always together when they played when they ate when they slept. With their parents dead, they had no home to return to and no one to rely on. The two cats struggled to live day to day while depending on each other. One day, the two of them were picked up by a certain Devil. The older Sister became a part of his group, and so the younger Sister was also able to live with them. Having finally obtained a decent life, the two of them believed that they could pass time very happily." She then narrowed her eyes. "However, something unusual happened. It appeared that the elder Cat Sister achieved rapid growth after gaining power. Her hidden talent suddenly began to overflow by becoming a reincarnated Devil."

"I know this story." Ren chipped in. "The Sisters you're talking about are the Nekomata siblings, right?"

Rias nodded. "You know about it?"

"Most Youkai do." Ren answered.

"Nekomata? You mean Youkai that are Cat-like?" Shirou guessed.

"More than that, the Nekomata from this story of the Strongest species among the Cat Youkai, a Nekoshou." Ren explained. "They are a High-level Youkai species who can not only master Youjutsu but Senjutsu as well. Furthermore, the one in this story bloomed in magic talent as well and even invoked Senjutsu that was on the level of a Sage. That made her as strong as an Ultimate-Class Devil."

"It seemed that the elder Cat Sister, having surpassed her master in a short time, was swallowed by power and was transformed into a wicked existence that only sought blood and battle." Rias continued. "With her increase in power not stopping, the elder Cat Sister killed the Devil that was her master in the end and degenerated into a Stray Devil. Moreover, she changed into one of the most dangerous among the Stray Devils. One that completely annihilated all the pursuit squads…"

"Her power was already said to be unnatural by ordinary Youkai standards and the fact that she was also a Devil just raised the bar higher." Ren added.

"It was said that the Devils temporarily cancelled all pursuit of the elder Cat Sister. After the pursuit team that was first sent was wiped out by her." Akeno said grimly.

"That begs the question though." Mika raised her hand. "What happened with the younger Sister?"

"The younger Cat Sister remained behind. The Devils questioned her as a liability there." Kiba explained, frowning. "It was Sirzechs-sama who saved that cat that was planned to be disposed of. Sirzechs-sama persuaded the High-Class Devils that the younger Cat Sister was innocent. As a result, the situation was settled by having Sirzechs-sama watch over her."

"However, having been betrayed by her elder Sister, that she believed in and tortured by the other Devils, the little Cat Sister's spirit appeared to be on the brink of collapse…" Rias concluded. "Onii-Sama left the younger Cat Sister that had lost her smile and the will to live in my care. After that, she recovered her emotions little by little. And then was given a new name. —Koneko."

.

.

.

Silence filled the room as the others who had just heard this for the first time were processing all that they learned.

"Wow, that was a bombshell to drop." Mika broke the silence. "But you dropped a bunch of hints in the middle so it was a little expected."

"Wait, then, Koneko-chan's true form is—" Asia said, letting it sink in.

"Did you know about this?" Shirou asked Ren.

Ren shook his head. "I didn't. I knew the story of the Nekomata Sisters, but in the story the older Sister's name was Kuroka and the younger Sister was Shirone. I had no idea that the younger Sister was renamed and was actually Koneko…" Ren stopped and thought back a bit. "…But now that I think about it, didn't she have a weird reaction when I transformed back during the fight?"

"Yeah you're right, she even collapsed and started trembling for a bit." Mika remembered. "Does that mean, she has a trauma?"

"That's exactly it. Koneko-chan's older Sister had her power run out of control and killed her Devil master. And then she had just left like that. That this girl had seen all of that." Rias explained. "Because she knew that a dangerous power that could just kill her master was sleeping inside her too, she was afraid. Afraid of the power sleeping inside of her and afraid of becoming like her Sister."

"It was many years ago so, at the time she was able to put it out of her mind and slowly move on but…" Kiba paused and looked sympathetic. "The fear still remained in the back of her mind."

"And seeing me triggered those memories, didn't they?" Ren asked, though he already knew.

"It wasn't your fault. Based on the situation it couldn't have been helped at the time." Akeno assured him.

"Still though, it was wishful thinking on my part when I thought that she would just be okay with it." Rias said dejectedly. "She was able to hold it in during the battle, but after the fighting stopped she locked herself in one of the empty rooms and won't come out."

Shirou didn't say anything, but just thought back to the last conversation he had with Koneko.

* * *

 _("But how!" Koneko stepped forward and asked.)_

 _(She was displaying more emotion than usual, which surprised some of the others. It seemed like she was really interested in the last part of what Shirou said.)_

 _("How where you able to stay in control?" Koneko continued to asked, really wanting an answer. "For someone that strong, his grasp on you must have been incredibly deep.")_

 _("True it was, in fact I almost didn't make it. But the key was my strength of will.")_

 _("…Strength of will?" Koneko repeated confused, "…That's all it took?")_

 _("That's all you need." Shirou reasoned. "When your mind is being overwhelmed and you feel yourself slipping away the only thing that'll save you is your own willpower. Mental strength means being able to withstand anything that attacks you from within and hold on to who your truly are. That is what it means to have strength of will, and my will was strong enough to push back that dark force.")_

 _(Shirou's words where find with conviction and insight. It wasn't logic or reason but rather spirit and emotion, those were what helped him overcome the darkness sleeping inside his heart and that was the source of his indomitable will that surrendered to no one.)_

 _("But, even though it's simple that doesn't mean everyone can do it." Shirou shrugged. "Even the other me was surprised I pulled it off. When you get right down to it everyone's will is different and while some people can do there'll always be some who can't.")_

 _(Now Koneko looked down at the ground, like the answer she heard only made her upset. "…I see it depends on the person." Her tone sounded depressed. "…Only some people can do it.")_

* * *

 _"I get it now."_ Shirou thought to himself, now believing Koneko's sudden interest back then finally made sense. _"This was why she wanted to know so badly."_

With this new knowledge, Shirou turned around and headed for the door. "Ren, what room is she in?"

"The room by the corner on the first floor." Ren answered, having sensed Koneko's whereabouts.

"Shirou wait." Rias spoke out. "Please leave the rest to us."

Shirou stopped after reaching the door. "What?"

"You're a kind person. But, it's also important to sometimes keep your distance just a little." Akeno added, agreeing with her "King" on this matter.

"Do you even hear yourselves right now?" Shirou asked rhetorically. "Tell me, how long has it been since Koneko was given to you? A few years right. And yet in that time what have you done, kept your distance hoping she would eventually calm down? Obviously that didn't help considering where she is now."

"You're not being fair Shirou-Kun." Akeno defended. "Ever since the Chief was given Koneko she has been doing everything she could to give her a happy life, all to help her get her mind off her pain and forget her past suffering."

"In that case, that's all the more reason to not leave things to you." Shirou said, unsympathetic. "You want her to forget, that isn't possible. It's her life, it's something that was etched into her memory that can never be unseen." He explained, with emotion. "Trying to show someone a better life can sometimes help them slowly recover, but trying to make them forget is the same as trapping them in an illusion that will eventually fall apart."

"…Shirou." Rias spoke downcast. She knew he was very serious about this because the way he was currently acting was similar to how he acted after hearing Kiba's past.

"He's right you know." Ren started, though not as emotional as Shirou. "Right now you're hoping Koneko overtime comes out of her slump and goes back to her usual self. But considering someone who uses the same Senjutsu she fears is around, that'll be hard. And more than that, going back to normal isn't enough anymore. I think it's best to just finally have her try to face up to this. Otherwise this problem will stay with her for who knows how long."

Rias was silent, processing their argument and trying to decide what would be the right course of action in this situation. Finally coming to a conclusion Rias let out a sigh.

"Very well, you may go to her." Rias relented.

Shirou just turned back to the door and walked out.

"Are you sure about this?" Akeno asked, still concerned.

"I myself don't have any better idea, besides." Rias closed her eyes for a moment and and then looked up. "He has a point, Koneko can't just go on the way she has up until now. It's not healthy and it's not good for her. I've tried all I can so, I'll let him try it."

"If I may, Chief." Kiba raised his hand. "I honestly don't think it'll be a problem letting Shirou try to help her." He smiled. "After all, he was able to help me."

"Me too." Asia added, also smiling. "I think Shirou-san could do the same for Koneko-chan."

"Brossiah has that effect on people. He's got charisma and a Sliver-tongue." Mika added. "He'll think of something."

"I hope so." Rias said, hopeful.

* * *

After a few minutes of walking, Shirou was on the first floor and in front of the room, Ren said Koneko was in. He tried opening the door but it was locked, so he added more force behind his grip and broke a hole in the door, thus forcing it open. When he walked in he saw it was a dark old classroom with four walls, a few desks and a blackboard. Sitting in the back of the room on the floor with her head down was Koneko.

 _"Huh, guess this place was once a school building."_ Shirou thought, looking around. _"Still considering how run down it is, I guess Rias only cleaned up the club room when she took over this building."_

Seeing her in an instant Shirou made his way over to Koneko, who didn't look up to see him. "…I thought the door was locked."

He tone was quiet and blank. Like she didn't want to be disturbed.

Shirou shrugged. "You seriously think a lock could keep me out?"

"…What did you come here for?"

A sullen tone of voice, far more than the extent up until now.

"…Would you believe me if I told you?"

"….…" Still acting sullen, Koneko didn't respond.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to drag you out. I'm here to talk."

"….…"

Shirou sat down next to her, but Koneko kept her silence.

"I pretty much heard about your past from Rias." Shirou informed her. "About Senjutsu and your Sister."

"….…"

Feeling tired of how this was getting nowhere, Shirou decided to say something he knew would get her attention.

"Speaking of Senjutsu, Ren's been training with me for a while on learning Touki. And pretty soon I'm planning on learning Senjutsu myself."

"What!"

Koneko yelled with shock clear on her face as she looked at him like he was crazy. Shirou just looked satisfied.

"You finally responded. I had a feeling that would get a reaction out of you."

"Don't you know how dangerous that is?! You'll bring danger to yourself and everyone around you!" Koneko said almost yelling at him.

"You mean the whole Senjutsu sucks in malice intent and mind-fucks your brain?" Shirou continued, not really reacting to her outburst. "Yeah I know, Ren gave me the whole explanation."

"Then why would you still do it?"

Koneko looked very displeased like she made explode again depending on his answer.

Shirou smirked. "Because the power of Senjutsu sounds pretty good and I figured I wouldn't mind having it myself."

Koneko grabbed his collar and shouted at the top of her lungs.

"ARE YOU INSANE!"

Koneko didn't stop there.

"How can you possible think that?! Don't you understand, that power is evil! If you try you'll be swallowed by the malicious intent and fall into darkness!"

"Right, after all it's not like I know what being swallowed by darkness feels like." Shirou reminded her.

Koneko paused after hearing him say that and became silent, knowing she misspoke, then she slowly let go of his collar. "…I'm sorry."

"Don't be, you've been holding it in for too long." Shirou assured her, not upset. "It's good for you to let it out for once."

Koneko now looked at him surprised. "…What?"

"Rias told me the whole story, about you and the whole thing with your Sister." Shirou explained. "I'm not going to pass judgement on her and say she's a monster or anything because I haven't actually met her. But I have met you so I can say this, you shouldn't be afraid of a power that belongs to you. It doesn't change the fact the power still exists inside of you."

Koneko shook her head. "No… I don't want that power… It only causes pain, it's evil."

"That's like saying guns are evil instead of the people shooting. A power is just a power, at the end of the day it all depends on who's using it." Shirou argued. "Case in point, my Sacred Gear."

Shirou summoned his Boosted Gear gauntlet.

"I did a little research about the thing, specifically on the Red Dragon Emperors before me, and while I couldn't find many names I did learn a pattern between all of them." Shirou informed her, holding up his Dragon hand. "Turns out almost all of them went mad with power and ended up killing themselves after losing control."

Koneko sat back down and nodded. "…I've heard of that… Most of the previous Sekiryuuteis were people that drowned and lost their heads in their power… I think that they were swallowed by the enormous power they had… My Sister is the same…" She crossed her arms around her knees and looked down.

"Not all that surprising, power is an amazing feeling, it's practically bewitching. But even with it, you need to be strong yourself to control it." Shirou said, looking up wistfully. "If you can't control your power, the power will control you."

"…That's right… And that's what happens to anyone who tries learn Senjutsu… It's an evil power." Koneko reiterated upset.

"By that logic wouldn't that mean the Boosted Gear is an evil power as well, I mean it has the same track record as Senjutsu, maybe even worse." Shirou pointed out. "And following that train of thought, wouldn't that mean at some point before long I'll be swallowed by my power."

"No that's…" Koneko tried to think of a rebuttal.

"Listen, you keep saying this power is evil but the truth is, the is no such thing as a power that's evil." Shirou continued, speaking earnestly. "No power in the world can be labelled as good or evil the way people can, every power in this world has the potential to do good or evil depending on how its used. For example, Rias has the power to destroy everything yet she used it to protect this town. Even Ren, someone who uses Senjutsu himself fought for a good cause, what more proof is there than that?"

Koneko heard all that he was saying and know on some levels he was right but looked distraught. "You're all different… You might be able to resist letting your power overwhelm your mind but… Not everyone can be like that."

"I can already tell by everyone you mean yourself, then let me ask you; Why not?" Shirou asked, disagreeing with her statement. "You act like I'm doing something special, honestly not letting your own power consume you isn't hard."

"…No, you're wrong…" Koneko sullenly denied keeping her head down. "…I can't—"

"Do you know why you can't?" Shirou interrupted her. "It's because you keep telling yourself that without even attempting it, you bow out before it's even begun. You know what's stopping you? It's in here." Shirou pointed to her forehead. "Be honest with yourself, is it really Senjutsu your afraid of?"

Koneko didn't know why, but throughout this conversation, she felt it was like she was unable to not respond when he asked. Or rather, she felt like it was strangely easier to tell the truth when talking to him. Thus she answered.

"…I don't want to use the power sleeping inside me… My Nekomata power… If I use it, I… Just like my Sister… I don't want that… I absolutely don't want such a thing… I'm afraid of becoming like her… More than anything."

Like water rushing out of a broken dam Koneko let out her true feelings at that moment, she even had tears falling from her eyes which was something neither Shirou, or really anyone in the Gremory Peerage had ever seen much of. Those tears were most likely something she had been holding back for years, only now letting them fall. She then felt a hand rest itself atop her head and look to see Shirou with a gentle expression.

Shirou then reached out his hand and gently wiped her tears away, similar to how he does for Asia and Mika whenever they shed tears in front of him.

Shirou sighed. "Geez, how many crying girls am I gonna have to deal with?"

"…Senpai?" Koneko spoke, surprised by his action.

"Don't stop on my account, let it all out." Shirou advised her. "The first step to healing is facing it. You're not invincible like me so it's okay to be a little whiny every now and then if you want to cry then cry if you need a shoulder to cry on then just ask. No man is an island and no one wants you to face this alone."

Koneko sniffled a bit, touched by his words and leaned in closer, rest her head by on his arm.

 **Play OST - A Certain Magical Index II - Tada, Sou de Aru tame ni**

"Koneko, back when I first started training with Ren, when I told him I wanted to learn Senjutsu he tried to talk me out of it." Shirou reminisced. "He kept telling me that the odds of me actually pulling it off were almost nothing, but I still wanted to learn it anyway and when he told me it would corrupt my mind, do you what I said to convince him?"

Koneko looked up at him curious and shook her head.

Shirou smiled. "I said; If that ever happens, come and set me straight all right. That's what best friends are for." He recited.

Koneko looked surprised by his words. "…What?"

"I guessing when your Sister learned Senjutsu she was by herself, so when she started to lose control she didn't have anyone beside her who could've pulled her back in." Shirou continued. "But I'm different, even if by some micro-sized chance I do get corrupted by this power, I at least have someone who can knock some sense into me and reel me back in."

Shirou then placed a hand on her head and told her in a warm tone. "And the same can be true for you."

Koneko stared at him, surprised by what it sounded like he was suggesting.

"You don't have to be afraid of losing control because you won't, so stop trying to hide something that's a part of you. Instead try to let it out step by step until you finally get over this." Shirou advised her while moving his hand to her cheek. "And if you ever feel like you starting to go over the deep end then I'll come running and knock some sense into you."

Koneko started to tremble and her two hands gripped on to the hand Shirou had placed on her cheek while they were still shaking. She then looked at him with an emotional gaze that looked both afraid and hopeful.

"…Do you promise? …Will you really stay with me… And make sure that… I don't become like my Sister?"

Shirou just kept his eyes on her and answered in a normal tone. "Do you really think I'd say all that just to lie to you?" He then cracked a smirk. "Who the hell to do think you're talking to?"

Then like a breathe of fresh air, Koneko was filled with both relief and a sense of security she hadn't felt in years. Tears started to fall from her eyes again, but this time they were from happiness rather than despair.

"Senpai… Thank you." She said quietly, with a genuine smile.

Shirou just reached out and wiped away her tears again. "No more tears." He then stood up. "Now come on, let's get out of here."

He began to head for the door and Koneko, now feeling better followed after him.

 **Music Off**

* * *

The atmosphere in the Occult Research Club room was an unusual one, to say the least. It was no longer the heavy atmosphere it was earlier, but right now it felt more awkward and hard to make sense of. A short while ago Shirou had returned to the club room, but before Rias or anyone else could ask about what happened, Koneko walked in the next moment.

But what surprised everyone were two things; The first was Koneko's appearance. Her hazel coloured eyes now had slit pupils, on her head appeared two small cat ears the same colour as the rest of her hair sticking up and moving independently. From behind Koneko's rear came a small fluffy tail, flicking occasionally as it laid there on the couch. And finally, overall she herself looked as if she was about one year older now. This was clearly her Youkai form, similar to Ren's one but obviously she resembled a Cat while Ren was a Wolf.

The second thing was where she was sitting. While Shirou came in and took a seat on the couch, Koneko stayed next to him and chose to take a seat on Shirou's lap. Looking as comfortable as a Cat resting by a sunbeam and that's what made everyone find it strange. The always stoic Koneko who was just facing emotional hardships was now sticking to Shirou with clear signs of affection. No one knew what to make of this.

"…K-Koneko?" Rias broke the silence, still dumbstruck. "Are you alright?"

Koneko looked over to her and nodded her head with a smile. "…Yes, I'm okay now."

"But, your….…" Rias pointed at her present form, trying to find the right way to address the elephant in the room, but couldn't put it into words.

"…It's okay." Koneko told her, knowing what she was talking about. "I'm not afraid of it anymore… Thanks to Senpai I think I want to try and work past it."

Now Rias really didn't know what to say. From what Koneko was saying Shirou had somehow helped her overcome her fear of her Nekomata side and was able to do so in a single sit-down. In other words, in a day he accomplished what she couldn't do for Koneko for years. She had never felt so surprised, relieved, ashamed and proud in her life all at once.

"Ara, Ara, this sure is a surprise." Akeno commented at this sudden turn of events. "So then, what exactly did you say her Shirou-Kun?"

Shirou simply shrugged indifferently. "Meh, nothing special."

"Forget that!" Mika spoke out loudly, obviously frustrated. "Let's move on to something important, why is sitting on your lap!?"

"That's more important?" Ren asked, tilting his head.

Koneko simply answered. "…Because Senpai's lap is my territory now."

Mika didn't like that answer. "Oh Hell no, you may have Super-Moe Cat ears and tail now and I'll get into gushing over that later, but right now. The throne that is my Brother's lap is mine!" She loudly staked her claim. "And no one, and I mean no one can just waltz in and take it for themselves!"

"Now, Now." Asia stepped forward, trying to calm down the situation. "K-Koneko-chan, wouldn't it be more comfortable to sit on a pillow instead?"

Though she was trying to hide it, Asia secretly wished she could sit on Shirou's lap herself once. But right now she felt stopping a fight was more important. However, Koneko's response was simply narrowing her eyes, grabbing hold of Shirou's hands and wrapping his arms around her, as if to further stake her claim. This just made Asia blush.

While Mika walked up to them upset. "That's it, outta the way!" She demanded as she forced herself on Shirou's lap too.

Now the two little girls were both sitting on the same lap while trying to push each other off, irritation their faces and Asia came up to them as well still hopelessly trying to quell the situation, while Shirou yawned and had the expression of someone who obvious didn't care about what was currently happening. Those around them just looked amused, finding what was happening somewhat funny.

"Ara, Ara. Looks like not even Koneko-chan was able to resist his charm." Akeno said with a smile on her face and a hand on her cheek. "He must have really smooth talk to have been able to win her over."

"Yeah." Rias simply replied her attention more on Koneko's complete change in demeanor.

"All joking aside though, it is surprising." Akeno started, now serious. "Despite what the others said I only expected Shirou-kun to just make her feel less upset, but not only did he completely help her pick herself back up, he also helped her overcome her fear of her Nekomata side. I don't know what he said to her but, all I call say about this is he really is amazing."

Now Rias just stared at Shirou both wistful and strangely enough upset, like she had something weighing on her mind. _"…He is amazing isn't her… And yet I…"_

"Enough already." Mika said, decidedly. "Big Bro, say something!"

"She's right Shirou-san." Asia added. "You should say something about all this."

"Hmm, you want me to say something?" Shirou repeated, unfazed. "Well, I say…" He then moved both girls off his lap, stood up and nonchalantly said. "I could go for a smoke break, so see ya."

"I'll join you." Ren tagged along.

And with that the two of them headed for the door, but before they walked out.

"Shirou wait." Rias called out, getting his attention, she then had a downcast expression. "If you don't mind, could I talk to you a little later, in private."

Shirou just opened the door and prepared to leave. "Sure, why not." He casually answered before he and Ren left.

* * *

Later that day, Shirou was at home in his room, sitting on his bedside. It was a little while after the events that transpired at the club room and just as Rias requested, he was waiting for her to show up so they could talk in private. Talk about what, he didn't know.

He had been waiting for about 10 minutes and was starting to grow impatient, thankfully though before he got up to find out what was taking so long, the door to his room opened and Rias walked in. Rias came in with her hair damp and drying up after being soaked, plus she was wearing nothing but a white bath-robe which indicated she just got out of the bath, her skin was so clear it was shiny and her face looked relaxed.

"Thanks for letting me use your bath." Rias said, walking up to him.

"I still don't see why you couldn't use the shower at the club room." Shirou pointed out.

Rias sat on the bed beside him. "It was a little crowded so I wanted somewhere else, Asia even joined me in there." She stated before smiling at him. "You know if you had asked we would have let you joined us as well."

"Your usual exhibitionist-talk aside." Shirou brushed off. "What did you want to talk about, and why did you want a bath before talking in the first place?"

Rias' smiled dropped and she became silent. "I just wanted to help myself relax before I told you this. In fact, it's been weighing on my mind for a while now."

"Okay, that's a start." Shirou now seemed interested. "Talk."

Rias looked down and seemed hesitant to say what she was thinking, soon she decided to speak up. "First let me get this out of the way. I'm truly grateful for what you've done today. You helped Koneko come out of her shell and allowed her to begin taking steps to move on. It was something I had always hoped for and the same can be said for Yuuto, it's like you always know how to help someone and act upon those thoughts without hesitation." She spoke with obvious admiration in her voice. "I honestly can't thank you enough."

Shirou just shrugged. "Yep I'm amazing." He bragged. "But it's mainly because of the difference between us. You'd like to help them but in cases like this, they usually respond to someone more similar to them. I, for example, am someone who can relate to Kiba and Koneko's situations so they have an easier time opening up to me." He explained. "While you, or in this case someone like you. They can trust you and be grateful to you, but they can't be real with you. It's just not something people their shoes are comfortable with."

Now Rias had an upset smile. "Yes, that's probably it. I'd always suspected it was something like that. But still, I at least wanted to try anyway, for their sake."

"Well it's not like you did anything wrong." Shirou reminded her. "Besides it was just happenstance that they managed to meet someone that could relate to both of them. They had fucked up pasts and so did I." He brushed off. "And that's all there is to it."

 **Play OST - Persona 3 - Living With Determination**

"But still…" Rias continued. "It feels like I'm always doing this like I'm taking advantage of your kind-heart. I can't do it on my own and so I end up needing you to do so instead."

"Huh? Isn't it a bit late to be feeling that way, aren't you the woman who told all her servants to "live you your sake"?" Shirou reminded her confused. "You even told me that when this all started, you didn't seem to have a problem using me then."

"I know that." Rias said, keeping her head down. "I realize this might seem strange to you, but my feelings aren't the same as they were before, especially regarding you, Shirou." She said with guilt. "In the beginning, I thought of you as just my "Pawn", but as time pasted that no longer was the case, you become something much more meaningful to me than that and that only made me feel guilty. I knew I had no right to feel that way and that is because I have been hiding the truth from you. A truth you deserve to hear from my own mouth." Rias braced herself. "Shirou, the truth is that I let you die." She admitted ashamed.

If Shirou had any reaction to what she said, he hid it well. "Ah, you're talking about how you knew those Fallen Angels were planning to off me and yet you sat back and watched. You wanted me dead so you could reincarnate me for my Gear even without consent." He summarized, leaning back. "Yeah I heard, Ren basically told me all that."

"I know." Rias informed him. "Ren told me that you knew of this along with why you didn't react to this information, he did so the night he revealed his Youkai side to me."

"Seriously?" Shirou asked, not knowing that fact. "Man why'd he have to do something unnecessary like that? Sometimes I don't get that guy."

"Regardless of what he told me, I wanted to hear it from you." Rias stated, looking at him directly. "Do you really not hate me? I wouldn't have blamed you if you hated or resented me, yet your attitude towards me didn't change. Was my promise to protect Mika so important to you that it was enough to quell your wrath?" She clearly wanted to know. "I have trouble completely believing that."

Shirou sighed and sat up. "Okay, let's say I did blow up at you and decided to hate you, what then? Would I have just left your Peerage and become a Stray Devil, what then? And if that did happen I'd drag Mika and Asia into it as well, what then?" He asked, hoping to make his point clear. "Regardless of how I felt, I wasn't in the right position at the time, so my plan was to bide my time and became a High-Class Devil as soon as possible and free myself from this Peerage. I just did the logical thing and made the best out of a bad situation."

"…Logical?" Rias asked, somewhat taken aback.

"Yeah, I used you like how you used me." Shirou reiterated. "My choices affect more than just my own life so I've got to think with logic at times like these."

"Maybe but still…" Rias began, not liking his answer. "How is it logical to not feel upset by this?! You lost your life, your humanity and freedom was taken from you! It shouldn't matter if it's logical or not, you have every right to act on your emotions on this matter." She spoke, unable to stop her emotions. "I can't understand how can you just put it aside like that."

"I think the better question is why are you taking it so seriously?" Shirou asked, now putting her on the spot. "Even back when I didn't know, you knew the whole time and you were fine with it. So why are you now feeling guilty about it, to the point where you felt the need to admit it yourself?" He narrowed his eyes at her. "Why does it only bother you now?"

"Because I…" Rias stopped, finding it hard to answer now. "I know it may seem strange now, but like I said I see you differently compared to before, not as a servant or even as family, it's more than that." Her hands started to tremble as she became flushed. "I think… I think that I… No rather, I'm sure of it." Mustering her courage, Rias declared quietly. "…I've fallen in love with you Shirou."

"Oh is that all?" Shirou asked, hardly reacting to her confession. "I already knew that too."

 **Music Off**

Now Rias looked surprised and even more embarrassed. "What, you knew?! Since when?"

"I'm not an idiot Rias." Shirou responded, off-handed. "It was obvious from the way you acted, you were annoyingly clingy even by your standards and you seemed to always want to be around me." He listed. "Plus you just offered to let me bathe with you, even though you're an exhibitionist you wouldn't do that for just anyone. Only a retarded guy wouldn't figure it out."

From the way he explained it, it did seem pretty obvious. Though that raised another question for Rias.

"Wait then, if you knew how I felt why didn't you say anything about it?" Rias asked, now unsure.

Shirou stared up at the ceiling. "Because I knew… That it wasn't real love."

Rias was surprised by his response, almost hurt and even a little insulted. "Not real? How can you say that after I told how I feel? What on earth would make you believe my feelings aren't real?"

Shirou let out a small breath. "…It didn't have to be me, it could've been any guy in my shoes and you'd have said the same thing."

Now Rias was taken aback. Of all things he could say, she didn't even know how to react to that one. "What are you talking about? Why would you even think that?"

"I'm pretty sure you started to have these feelings for my right after the Rating Game." Shirou guessed. "In other words, you apparently "fell in love with me" after I saved you. So the truth is, it's not me per se but what I've done for you. You were trapped in a miserable situation and some guy swept in and saved you. So basically if any guy who had the strength to beat Raiser and stop the engagement had become your Pawn you'd have felt the same way about them" He described. "That's all it is. That's why I never responded."

"T-That's not true." Rias denied, surprised he even suggested that.

"Oh just admitted it." Shirou replied, adamant. "Even though at your core your just a teenage girl you never got to enjoy the everyday things a girl your age could because of your position. So naturally, you wouldn't be familiar with emotions like these, you might think it's love but it's probably just gratitude mix in with a school-girl crush. That stuff eventually fades."

"You're wrong, Shirou." Rias said, unshaken. "I know for a fact that you're wrong."

"And why's that?" Shirou asked, looking at her.

 **Play OST - Haikyuu - Obsession**

Before answering, Rias grabbed onto his hand and held it with both of hers. She then moved in closer until their faces were only inches away and she looked him in the eye.

"Because of two things you said." Rias answered. "The first, you said I first had these feelings after the Rating Game, but that was incorrect. These feelings first came before then." She corrected. "The second, what you said, what you always say; at my core, I'm a teenage girl. That's always how you saw me and that's what I love about you."

Now Shirou was taken aback. "What?"

"When I first meet I didn't know what to think of you, but I knew you were interesting. Before I knew it I always kept thinking about you, about how you always did what I never expect, about how you were so strong and yet so kind, about how you never saw me as a Princess or with eyes of lust and wonder likes others did, but only as just Rias a teenage girl. And as time went on I found myself feeling almost drawn to you." Rias then placed one of her hands over her heart. "And these feelings truly surfaced that night we spoke under the stars."

"Back on the Mountains." Shirou remembered.

Rias nodded, smiling warmly. "That talk has always been a precious memory for me, that night when I spoke with you I laid bare all that was weighing on my mind, it was the first time I was able to speak my truest thoughts, one that I always had to hold in. And when told me that my desires weren't strange at all and you'd come to understand me, I think my heart had skipped a beat."

Rias then let go of his hand and then looked up at the ceiling with a wistful expression.

"Back then, I wanted to understand you as well." She continued. "I wanted to be someone you could trust and rely on that's why started to train myself as well, but in the end I still ended up having to rely on you. But whenever I looked back on that night I always felt my heart race and my face would form a smile. I know I'd be lying if I said you saving me wasn't part of the reason and maybe if it had been another man things would have been like you described. But this is different from that, deep down I know, the person I'm in love with is the young man sitting beside me who always saw the real me; his name is Shirou Tsukiharu." She confessed again, this time more natural. "Nothing will make me doubt that."

 **Music Off**

.

.

.

Now there was nothing but silence that filled the room. Shirou didn't respond or react, as if he was completely at a loss on what he should make of this. All he could do was sit there and try to process all that he had heard. Then he looked into her eyes, in the past there had been a number of girls who had confessed their feelings to him, but he could see it in their eyes that they had ulterior motives.

The look in their eyes was always the same, they simply had feelings of lust for him, or in other cases the girls just wanted to use him to gain a reputation or to inflate their egos by dating a popular guy. Their gazes sometimes grated on his nerves, but… This was different. Rias' eyes held no such selfish intent, instead it was a sparkle pure adoration. It was different from the feeling he got from Asia or Mika, or even Aika. But it wasn't unknown to him. It was enough to force him to admit that Rias' feelings from him truly were genuine.

Once he realized that, Shirou just smiled as if he found the whole thing funny.

"…Ha, well damn. I knew I was but I didn't think I was that good." Shirou muttered as he leaned back and laid on his back on top of his bed. "You really have fallen for me, haven't you."

Rias smiled back at him and nodded with happiness and relief that he had believed her. "I have."

"But still." Shirou continued. "That isn't the main reason you called me out to talk, isn't it? So you must have told me all that to lead into something else." He deduced. "So then, what's the big thing you wanted to tell me?"

Rias' smiled turned upside down and she looked away. "Shortly after I realized how I felt about you, another feeling welled up inside of me. I knew quickly that it was guilt. Despite the fact that I left you to be slain for my own benefit, I didn't feel bad about it or ever atone. I just lived on like nothing had happened and to add to that I actually developed feelings for you." Rias' spoke with regret. "Even I knew how wrong it all sounded."

"So what do you plan to do about it?" Shirou asked, interested in where this was going. "You can't exactly take it back."

"But there is something I can do." Rias then looked at him seriously. "Shirou, let me make it up to you."

"Huh?" Shirou wasn't expecting that.

"Unless I receive some kind of atonement I can't ever let go of this guilt in my heart." Rias continued. "And it must be by your hand. Just name it, anything. I swear I will accept anything you deem fit as a way to make things right."

"So… You really want to make it up to me?" Shirou questioned.

"Yes." Rias immediately answered without hesitation.

"Then… Hold still." Shirou instructed.

Rias blinked, not knowing why he would say that, but complied nonetheless. At that point, Shirou stood up and before Rias could react he clenched his fist and swung his right fist at Rias.

PA!

Rias was hit directing in her cheek by Shirou's punch and her head was knocked back. Shirou followed by punching her in the stomach which knocked the air out of her. He then chopped her in the side of her torso which led to an uppercut to her jaw. This knocked her off her feet and Shirou continued his assault by kicking her in the gut which knocked her into the wall and finished it off by grabbing her arm and used his arm as a fulcrum in order to flip Rias backwards high in the air before hitting the floor.

THUD!

Shirou let out a huff and did some arm stretches. "For starters, that's for keeping it from me for so long."

"Gugh…" Rias groaned in pain as she laid on the floor, flat on her back. Her cheek was swollen. Her stomach, side, back and jaw were extremely sore. And her vision was a little blurry after hitting the floor like that. No doubt she was in a world of pain. Plus, all that high-speed movement messed up her bathrobe and untied the slash, opening up her robe and thus exposing the front of her bare Naked body. But neither one of them seemed to care.

"Good thing you're a Devil." Shirou commented, standing above her. "If you'd been a human that would have permanently injured you. Well, do you regret asking for atonement?"

Rias shook her head, still lying there. "No, I swore I would accept anything you deem fit." She answered through the pain, her resolve unshaken. "I don't mind a little pain if it will make things right."

"That right?" Shirou somewhat impressed by her attitude knelled down and sat beside her. "Well then, here's how you can truly make things right. Remember when you first told me to live for your sake?"

Rias just nodded.

"A life for a life, I lost mine so give me yours." Shirou said, serious. "It'll be a new pact between the two of us, this time you will live for me. You'll stay with me and live for my sake, always. If you honestly want to make it up to me then you'll accept." He told her as if he was testing her. "So then, do you accept?"

Rias was quiet for a moment, but then she looked up at him and to his surprise, she smiled as though she heard something wonderful "I accept your pact. I will live for your sake and always be with you. I will do whatever I can to assure your happiness and promise to never go back on those words." She then sat up and told him fondly. "Shirou, let us always be together."

Shirou was honestly surprised. A part of him didn't actually believe she would say yes, he basically said he wanted to put a leash on her neck. Yet she was acting like he had just proposed or something along those lines. It was an odd feeling, but he realized that in the end it still works out for him. So he stood up and turned around.

"In that case, as of this moment, we are now square." Shirou decided. "You are forgiven and can live with a clear conscience free from guilt and we'll see where this goes. I'll tell Asia to come up and heal you."

Rias didn't respond but just rested her hand on her cheek. As Shirou reached the door, he stopped and clicked his fingers.

"Oh that right, I almost forgot." That got Rias' attention as Shirou turned around and came up to her again. "There's still one last thing."

"Hmm, what is that?" Rias asked confused, not knowing what else there could be.

Instead of answering Shirou just leaned in and kissed her. Pressing his lips against hers, Rias was surprised by the suddenness of the kiss and didn't know why he was kissing her in the first place. But she didn't try to object and simply enjoyed the experience. After several seconds Shirou leaned back and ended the moment of physical intimacy, as if reading her mind he answered what she was thinking.

"I always return the favor." Shirou explained. "After the Rating Game, when I was injured and couldn't move you stole a kiss from me, so I stole one back."

After saying that, it took a moment for Rias to finally process his words. Then when they sunk in her face blushed a red almost as deep as her hair. "I thought you were unconscious at that time!" She cried out, embarrassed.

"Sorry to break it to you but I was still awake, I passed out right after our lips separated." Shirou informed her, amused by her reaction.

Rias became completely flushed and buried her face in her hands. "Have you no shame! You can't just steal a kiss like that from a woman, a woman's first kiss is something to be treasured in Japan."

"You're not Japanese, that's wasn't your first kiss and we weren't in Japan. Besides you're one to talk about being shameless, you're literally Naked right now." Shirou reminded her, not regretting his action at all. "Now that that's done, I have somewhere I need to get to, so I'm out."

And so Shirou left for real this time, closing the door behind him. Now Rias was alone in his room and still embarrassed she sat back on his bed and laid down, staring up at the ceiling. She let out sighed but then smiled satisfied and touched her lips. "I'm glad things were able to work out, somehow."

* * *

 **{LEMON ALERT! EXPLICIT CONTENT HAS BEGAN!}**

 **Play Song - Killing Me Softly - Luther Vandross**

HUMP!

HUMP!

HUMP!

The sound of bed spring being pushed down and then coming back up could be heard as the two people on said bed were enjoying some midday pleasure. After leaving his house Shirou had gone over to Aika's place and decided today was a good time for doing what they usually do whenever the mood strikes them. Of course, they always did it at her house because it would be impossible to do the deed undisturbed at Shirou's residence.

Right now they were in Aika's bedroom, the lights off and a small lamp being the only source of light in the room. The curtains and windows were closed, their clothes littered the floor and the two of them were under the covers.

"Auuu~!" Aika let out a moan of arousing pleasure as they continued on.

As things went on the two of them were locked in an embrace as Aika's arms were around Shirou's shoulders. She leaned in for a kiss and connected her warm lips against his, Shirou returned the kiss with equal passion while his hands explored Aika's body which caused the perverted girl to let out a soft moan in his mouth. Shirou used the moan to his advantage and slipped his tongue into her mouth as he started to explore her mouth. Aika didn't want to be outdone by Shirou so she fought back and the two engaged in a heated battle for dominance over the kiss. Eventually, Aika pulled back from the kiss due to a lack of air and Shirou smirked victoriously.

Not having had enough yet Shirou grabs her legs and spreads them apart, then proceeded to thrust his rock-hard cock into Aika's hymen which it effortlessly tore through, causing Aika to cry out in pain and pleasure. Shirou silenced her with a kiss and slowed down the speed he was entering her with so prolong his enjoyment. Soon he pulled back and leaned down to her chest, upon doing so Shirou took a bite into the tip of Aika's breast along with roughly sucking on it which resulted in her letting out another moan.

"Auuu~ You're so rough~!" Aika cried out through her moans.

"You know you love it." Shirou quietly replied, not stopping.

Shirou sped up his thrusting and went even deeper which caused more pleasure for both of the teens. Aika wrapped her legs around Shirou's hips so he didn't pull out to much. Shirou pounded Aika at an amazing speed. Aika could only moan in response because Shirou's thickness and length were repeatedly smashing against her cervix and G-spot at the same time. Soon Shirou was moving at a speed that sent a wave of pleasure through Aika's body.

"AUGH~! You're going to rip me in half~!" Aika cried out with ecstasy.

"Shut up before the neighbors hear." Shirou responded.

Shirou never stopped thrusting and kept ploughing into Aika, moving in back and forth and not slowing down for a second causing the bed to rock even harder than before. Their bodies were pressed up against each other as Aika was let out deep breaths while Shirou still looked ready for more. Then grabbing onto her hips he pushes in with one final thrust much stronger than all the rest and the force of it was enough to make Aika let out a loud, lewd scream as she hit her climax.

 **{LEMON END}**

 **Music Off**

* * *

"Haa~, that was nice." Aika sighed.

It was a few minutes later and now the two of them were fully dressed, went down to the living room of Aika's house and were now sitting on a couch with a small table in front of them. Aika was enjoying some tea while Shirou was smoking a cigarette. They both looked completely relaxed and at peace like they were cooling off after getting out of a steam room.

"You should really try a smoke." Shirou offered. "It's great after sex."

"Sorry, but I have no interest in damaging my pretty pink lungs." Aika declined.

Shirou shrugged. "Your loss."

"Still though, your endurance was crazy, I was being torn in half yet you still looked ready for more." Aika commented.

"Don't be surprised, if I wanted to a could do twenty women in one night without running out of steam." Shirou brag, confident.

Aika gave him a perverted smile. "Oh twenty women, is right? So do you plan on doing that anytime?"

"Don't turn this into a conversation." Shirou warned her irritated, puffing more smoke. Aika just snickered at him.

"By the way, I happened to notice you seem a bit more stressed lately." Aika noted. "Did something happen?"

Shirou burned out his cigarette and sighed. "It's just been a really eventful few days, I hardly had any time for myself and to top it off, just earlier today some girl confessed her love to me."

"Hmm, another girl has fallen for the charm of Kuoh's Dark Prince?" Aika joked, leaning in closer. "Who was she?"

"It was Rias." Shirou answered, blunt.

Aika blinked, a little surprised. "Wow, that happened sooner than I expected."

Shirou raised a brow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're both extremely popular and your both in the same club so you spend almost every day together." Aika reasoned. "Plus people have already started rumors ever since you two first walked to school together that first day, as for me but I figured she'd fall for you at some point. But I somewhat hoped you wouldn't."

"Why's that?" Shirou asked, now curious.

Aika now had a mischievous smile. "Because that would upset all the girls at school that were hoping you played for the other team."

If Shirou had a drink he would've most likely taken a spit take after hearing that. True enough though Aika wasn't kidding as she reached into a small book bag by her feet and took out two Doujinshi books. On the cover of one book were two boys with one resembling Shirou and the second resembling Kiba. The other book also had two boys on the cover and once again one of them resembled Shirou but the second one on this book resembled Ren instead.

Shirou's eye twitched. "What the hell am I looking at?"

"Oh isn't it great? I made these Doujinshi just for fun and then I started selling them." Aika explained, still smiling. " _The Prince & The Hound_ is about you and Kiba, while _Forbidden Feelings_ is about you and Ren. The female students at the school of all ages are crazy about this stuff, after all, no girl can resist BL."

"That's not what I'm asking." Shirou replied, clearly unhappy. "What I mean is why do these exist?"

"Well as you know, even though all the male students are total perverts, the female students are just as bad, if not worse but unlike me they try to hide it. So I figured I could make some extra money off their horny desires with some deviant-art." Aika explained. "And thus I had a friend of my draw the art-style while I wrote the smut, and before long everyone wanted a copy."

Shirou face-palmed. "Lousy school of horny fucks." He cursed. "And you, I don't recall giving you permission to use me as a model for your Yaoi smut."

"Okay, I see where this is going. If you let me keep selling this stuff I'll give you 50% of the profits." Aika offered.

"Alright deal." Shirou accepted. "Can't do much if people have already seen it, might as well just milk it for all it's worth."

"That's the spirit." Aika patted his shoulder.

 _DING!_

Shirou's phone went off and he checks it to see he had gotten a text. After looking over his phone and reading the text he just looked indifferent and stood up.

"Guess it is about that time." He said to himself.

"What's up, going somewhere?" Aika asked, interested.

"It's just something small, no worries." Shirou brushed off while heading for the door. "Later."

And with that Shirou took his leave.

* * *

It was now the afternoon and the sun had started to set over the horizon, making the sky into a deep orange colour. Shirou was currently in the middle of Devil work, having been summoned by the request of one of his client's. The client in question was the man who first summoned him when the incident with the Holy-Swords first began, the tall man with black and blonde hair in a kimono whose name Shirou never found out, he only knew him as Aza.

He was always an unusual client. Aza only ever made strange requests like asking Shirou to go buy bread in the night. And before that, he said "Let's go fishing" and had Shirou accompany him to a nearby fishing spot. Though Shirou never complained because he gives back more than what was demanded.

He started by giving him a bottle of alcohol, then an expensive looking painting, and then jewels, and then even gold nuggets. And of course, Shirou accepted all those payments without having to think about it.

This time the request was for Shirou to join him for a meal and the two of them were sitting in Aza's hotel suite while eating a large plate of sushi.

"You must really like fish." Shirou commented while eating. "I mean, first you went fishing and now you ordered sushi for dinner."

"I figured I wanted to give it a try, after going to the fishing pond I wanted to try some fish for myself." Aza reasoned. "Besides, this is the first time I've ever eaten sushi so I wanted someone else here in case I needed help finishing it."

"Yeah well, this ain't real sushi, its just some cheap packaged crap you can find anywhere." Shirou argued. "Now the sushi I make, that's real sushi."

Aza smiled and took another bite. "I see, I have to try someone of these days."

"Well as long as you can pay for it." Shirou joked.

Aza then ate one last piece of sushi and then stood up. "I must admit though, it's never boring with you Devil-Kun." Aza then narrowed his eyes and smirked. "Or would you rather I call you Red Dragon Emperor?"

The room was suddenly filled with silence, both the aura around Aza and the atmosphere in the room became heavy and oppressive. Shirou just looked amused. "Haha, you can call me whichever you want, Aza. Or would you rather I can you Azazel?"

If the now revealed to be Azazel felt any surprise from Shirou's words, he hid it well. "Hmm interesting, how'd you figure it out?"

"It's elementary my dear fish-man." Shirou jokingly replied. "I've been able to sense a huge power from you since the day I first saw you, but I didn't have anything to compare it to until I fought Kokabiel. I realized your power was almost the exact same as his' only much bigger, meaning you were a Cadre Fallen Angel. Plus the fact that you called yourself Aza was practically giving me the rest of the answer."

Azazel sheepishly rubbed his head. "I guess that was my bad. Still, though the fact that you figured out means that what I've heard is true; you are smarter than you look."

Shirou narrowed his eyes. "Hey! You saying I look stupid!?"

PA!

Instead of answering him, Azazel brought out his wings and sprouting out from his back were 12 Black-feathered wings that were as big as Kokabiel's, only they looked a bit different. Not just Kokabiel, but Raynare and every other Fallen-Angel he had met thus far had the same kind of wings, they were Black but, they were more of a dirty Black with messed up feather, resembling that of crows or a ravens wings. Azazel's wings seemed different, his feather looked fresh and undamaged, also the color while still Black felt different. It was like the Black of a starless night, a true Blackness which light could reflect off of.

"You are correct, I am indeed Azazel the Governor-General of the Fallen-Angels. It's a pleasure." Azazel introduced himself.

"Drop the formality would ya." Shirou brushed off. "So what's with the whole inviting me over, aren't we technically enemies because of what happened in the Race War?"

"After what happened with Kokabiel, I thought it was time I finally introduced myself to you." Azazel told him. "That and one other thing, I also happen to have a special interest in that Boosted Gear of yours."

"Oh yeah, I heard you're a "collector" now." Shirou told him, unconcerned. "You grab whatever Sacred Gear you can like an Otaku grabs figurines and your organization is made of almost nothing but Sacred Gear users."

"You're correct, but I prefer to think of myself as a researcher of interesting things in this world." Azazel argued. "And I must say you're development is incredibly interesting, you have a unique way of using the Dragon's power, you've found and claimed the lost Holy-Sword Dyrnwyn and you've even obtained Balance Breaker and used it to defeat Kokabiel." He listed with fascination. "I can't decide who interests me more, between you or Albion."

"You mean the Hakuryuukou?" Shirou asked, now interested.

"Unfortunately I couldn't be as present as I'd liked, so I sent someone else to take care of it if need be, in my steed." Azazel shrugged his shoulders. "I must say I was impressed that he was able to follow my directions this time."

"Well, I'm glad you happy because it was a buzz kill for me." Shirou replied, unhappy. "I was so looking forward to a good fight and it ends with just a "Sorry, maybe next time" type of ending. Total disappointment."

"Ha, you two even have similar personalities." Azazel said amused before his face became serious. "But it's better you didn't fight him, especially after you had just broken free from being consumed by your Inner Darkness."

Now Shirou was confused. "What are you talking about? I mean, I'm not surprised that you know about that given your position and the fact that you had a witness, but why would you care about what happens to me?"

"For more reasons than you'd think. I was being honest when I said I decided to reveal myself after what happened with Kokabiel, but didn't you wonder why I first approached you in the first place?" Azazel asked, now walking up to him. "The truth is I've known about you since your Darkness first awakened during the battle against Phenex."

Now Shirou had his guard up. "Wow, slow down, what the hell are you going on about? Why would you be watching me, and what do know about me anyway?"

"You want to know?" Azazel raised his hand and gathered magic. "Instead of telling you, I'll show you."

The tip of Azazel's index finger started glowing a royal blue colour and he placed his finger on the center of Shirou's forehead. And then at that moment, Shirou felt a repulsing force going for his mind, it was there was a seal on his brain and it was being hit by a strong impact until the seal was shattered. Then all of a sudden, like water flooding out of a broken dam, memories started to erupt into Shirou's mind.

FLAAAAAASSSSSSHHHHHHH!

* * *

 _I remembered…_

 _Pain coursing through on every part of my body._

 _It hurt so much, I didn't even have the energy left to scream._

 _I didn't know who they were or why they were doing, why. That's what I wanted to know._

 _It's been so long I've lost my sense of time._

 _It had been so long my mind had started to become hazy. I could barely remember where I was._

 _But I could feel the pain my damaged body was in. My body was bruised black and had some cuts from a whip around a certain part. But more seriously it was covered in gashes and slash marks from sharp edges similar to a blade and there were also puncture point that was the result of being pierced by metal spikes. It would be hard to find any part of my body that wasn't damaged. Most of my wounds were still dripping blood, there was even a small puddle of blood on the floor beneath me._

 _The one who did this made sure to maximize the damage without killing me, it was like a masterpiece in the art of torture._

 _As I began to wake up I began taking in my surroundings, I was inside a dark room that looked like some kind of dungeon, the only source of light was the small bit of sunlight that came in from the small crack in the ceiling making a small ray of light. At the end of the room was a small wooden door that looked kind of heavy and was reinforced with metal. As I tried to lift my hands I noticed they were chained to the wall making me grit my teeth._

 _But most importantly I took notice to the person standing before me. He had the appearance of a young man that was dressed in a somewhat demonic-looking Black armor that clung to his muscular body like a second layer of skin, along with a cape that looked noble and almost kingly. He had long brown hair that goes to his hips with many bangs covering his right eye. But the most defining thing about him was his expression. It was cold and callous like he didn't see a thing wrong in what he was doing or didn't even care. And he looked at me with the same eyes a person would look at an insect with, it was as if he thought he was so much better than everyone like the world wasn't good enough for him._

 _The man walked up to me and with a wave, his hand seemed to flash out like a transparent blur and slashed over my face. It made another small cut over my cheek but I didn't react, it definitely hurt but I didn't have the energy to cry out in pain or even lift my face at this point. All I did was remain motionless while blood dripped from my cut, this only seemed to irritate the man judging from his sneer._

"You no longer even the strength to even acknowledge the damage." He spoke in a cold voice. "What a truly pathetic sight."

 _Even though I could hear him, I still had no idea what he wanted or what he was even hoping for when he cut me._

"It seems you've reached the limit of what your weak human body is capable of and yet despite being the next vessel, the Darkness hasn't awakened for even a moment." He noted with disappointment. "I was hoping drawing him out and destroy him within his vessel would've been a simple matter but it seems we'll have to take a different approach."

 _As usual, I didn't understand a thing he was talking about. During this whole ordeal, he and some others would always talk about things like "vessel" or "awaken" and no matter what they said I couldn't make sense of any of it. But I understood his next words perfectly._

"He'll awaken if we destroy you mentally, if torture won't work then we have another method." He looked at me with a merciless expression. "Your sibling is also in our possession, if I show you her bloodied corpse, maybe that'll bring better results."

 _My eyes immediately widened and despite my pain and fatigue, I look up at him with a horrified expression, which he took notice to._

"I see that trigger a reaction, that means we're on the right track. Good." After saying that he turned and walked away.

 _The door closed with a small slam and I was alone again with my thoughts._

 _"Mika."_

 _I bit my lip, not out of fear but frustration from this whole situation. I didn't understand anything, where I was, what I'm even doing here, or what these people wanted with me. All they did was constantly hurt my over and over again and for what; I didn't have the slightest idea. And now they plan on doing something even worse to my Sister._

 _This is all so ridiculous._

 _At first, I thought "If this is my fate, then just kill me" death would be better then having to endure this. But those thoughts were destroyed, I couldn't die yet, or rather…_

 _This rage growing inside of me like a burning inferno wouldn't allow me to. My wrath was all that kept my will intact. Reason and logic just seemed to fade away until I couldn't feel anything besides emotion and I could hear an unfamiliar voice._

" **I can lend you power.** "

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONN!

Sudden his eyes were overshadowed by his bangs while a shadowy Black aura started to emanate from his body.

Now that aura grow into pure Darkness that looked as if would swallow anything it touched and a large amount of it surrounded Shirou's body creating a shockwave, the Darkness continued to erupt and wrapped around his body like a cocoon.

Before long the Darkness started to fluctuate until it finally dispersed, almost as if it shattered like glass. What was seen was Shirou still held by his shackles but now his body was cloaked in an aura of Darkness, it was wrapped around him like a visible outline.

When he opened his eyes. They shined a brilliant, almost blinding Golden glow that resembled treasure, they weren't Shirou's eyes anymore, those eyes carried a cold stare one that felt like they were staring right through you and could send a chill down your spine.

The first thing that happened was all of Shirou's open wounds had stopped bleeding and with little struggle he pulled his arms out which immediately broke the shackles off, thus setting him free. With this new freedom, he walked towards the door and with a simple push blew the door of its hinges and broke it open.

 _I didn't know how and frankly I didn't care, all I knew was that I was free and had a chance to get away from all this. But first and more importantly, I had to find Mika._

 _Something else I didn't question was this strange feeling I suddenly felt, it was almost as if I knew where Mika was and so I decided to act on that feeling and rushed to where I believed she was. I found the place in a matter of seconds and stop in front of a wooden door that looked identical to the door to the room I was looked in, and just like that door I busted it down and walked through._

 _What I saw only fed the already raging torrent of flames that was my wrath. Inside the room was the same dungeon-like chamber that I was in, however standing in the center of the room was a person that I assumed was a man, whose face was hidden by a skull-like helmet and was wearing a Demonic guard-like armor, he noticed me the moment I stepped forward. But that wasn't what got my attention._

 _On the floor of the chamber and at the guard's feet was the bloodied form of my little Sister, face down on the floor in a puddle of blood and severe open injuries on her back, it looked like the damage that was done by a blade. Mika didn't even twitch, it wasn't clear if she was even still breathing._

"How did you—"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Before he could finish speaking, Shirou roared in a frenzy of madness and rage. At that moment, like a bloodthirsty animal, Shirou pounced at the guard in front of him intending to kill him. In an instant, Shirou pasted him and his fist shrouded in Darkness tore through his flesh like hot butter, that was all it took because a second later his whole body vanished without a trace, as any Devil's corpse would.

With that deed done Shirou slowly stepped up to the fallen form of his Sister and reached out to her. With the greatest tenderness and gentleness, Shirou was capable of, he held his Sister in his arm, feeling relief that she was only unconscious after feeling her pulse. The fire in his eyes dimmed as he held her close like she was the most precious thing in the world to him right now.

Then as he began to start walking again, intending to leave this place the fire reignited.

 _Why I did she have to go through all this. Why did I have to go through all this. What even is this place and who are these people. No… I don't care, that isn't important anymore. All I need to know is how I'm going to kill these people._

 _Yes… Yes, I will kill them, all of them. I swear, I will never forget this hatred, I'll make all of them suffer in the most painful way possible. And then… I'll kill them, especially him. I'll kill him_ _… Crush him_ _… Destroy him._

As the Darkness was coating Shirou for such a long time he could feel himself sinking deeper and deeper into it. His mind was being influenced by it, became more violent and driven by emotion. But what he didn't realize was the Darkness was trying to consume him and there was another presence within him was trying to use this opportunity to overshadow his mind.

And things only got worse when he heard something from the distance.

BAAANNNGGGG!

[AAAAGUUAAAAHHHH!]

 _I knew that voice, the voice of the person who had just screamed. Even though it was pretty far I could still recognize who it belonged to and that filled me with dread. I wanted to just keep walking, I wanted to stay away from because I was terrified of what I might find._

 _And yet, I couldn't stop myself. Before I had even decided, I was already running towards where I heard the scream. All the while inwardly hoping and praying as much as I could for it to not be what I feared it was._

Once Shirou had arrived at the source of the voice and stopped running he saw something that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

He was currently in the middle of an area at the end of the stone-walled hallway and arrived at a room was similar to a center hall because all the paths around this place seemed to lead here. The room was a round-sphere shape and large enough to fit a great number of people.

Standing in the middle of this room were three people. One was the same Black-armored man who was with Shirou in the torture chamber and beside him were two others, one was a tall woman in glasses and a voluptuous figure, she wore a low-cut dress which exposed quite a bit of cleavage. She had brown hair tied in a bun and tanned skin. The other was a man had Black haired tied in a small ponytail, pale skin, pointy ears and was dressed in noble looking clothes with red belts and motifs, coupled with a violet cape. They each looked somewhat injured, like having signs of a struggle just a moment ago.

But what truly horrified Shirou was what he saw beside them.

Laying at their feet were two corpses swimming in a pool of blood. A man with jet-Black hair and a woman with snow-White hair. Shirou recognized them instantly, they were his parents; Mikoto and Hideki Tsukiharu. His Mother had a hole pierced through her chest and his Father had a gash cut over his throat, you didn't even need to check to already know they were dead.

"Looks like they're finally dead." The tanned woman said pleased. "Took long enough."

"The method may not have been the most dignified but the end result is all that matters." The Black-armored man spoke.

The pale-skinned man seemed to notice something and turned towards Shirou. "Look."

They both did and all of them were surprised to see Shirou cloaked in Darkness and frozen in shock.

"He escaped." The Black-armored man noted disgusted. "What a nuisance."

"Not exactly, take a look." The tanned woman argued, with a smirk. "That aura says it all, he's awakened."

"Then this objective was a success." The pale-skinned man said gladly. "Now all we need to do is kill the vessel."

Shirou wasn't paying attention to anything they were saying. His full attention was focused solely on his parents, or rather their remains. Tears threatened to spill out. Hot, angry tears. It wasn't true, it was a nightmare, he wanted so badly to believe that, but he couldn't. But he felt no grief or sadness. Only a hatred and rage that wanted to destroy everything.

"A-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONN!

"I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL PURGE YOU! I'LL GORE YOU ALL! I'LL GET MY REVENGE ON EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!"

The Power of Darkness erupted as Shirou bellowed violently. It was a sad and painful screech filled with wrath. The Darkness spread further and further through his body and skin like it was going to swallow him whole. This made his aura swirl and wave around his body wildly. Then the Power of Darkness radiated around him and grew bigger and bigger until it exploded and starting rising upwards like a pillar of darkness concentrated around him. And it kept growing, become more like an erupting volcano than a pillar. It spread further and until it consumed everything.

The three who were standing over the dead bodies of his parents realized the danger they were in and used teleportation-circles to get away before the Darkness reached them.

* * *

 **Play OST - Transformers The Movie (1986) - The Death Of Optimus Prime**

After the Darkness erupted from Shirou and those other three had vanished, the Darkness kept growing until it lost control and burst out into an explosive force that wiped out everything in sight. The building they were inside of was a large stone fort that resembled a castle, but now it was nothing but a large, deep hole in the ground, so large it looked like a meteor hit it and so deep you couldn't even see the bottom. There was absolutely nothing left.

A few feet away from the newly formed chasm was Shirou who was still shrouded in Darkness and still holding Mika in his arms. He was slowly walking away from the chasm somehow completely unaffected by the explosion and looking ready to kill anything that came across from him.

On the outside, where he was currently walking was nothing more than a wasteland. There were no glass or trees, or any sign of life anywhere, just flatland and a barren emptiness in every direction. But that wasn't important, all that matter was getting as far away from here as possible.

"Well, would you look at that."

Shirou's attention was immediately drawn to an unfamiliar voice that sounded close by. Appearing from seemingly out of nowhere was Azazel who was only a few steps away from Shirou and had a downcast expression.

"I was hoping it didn't come to this, but the worst possible outcome came to pass." Azazel spoke upset. "Well, at least you survived."

Shirou put his guard up and looked ready to attack if he had to. He was similar to a wolf cub in the wild threatening to pounce. But Azazel didn't seem worried and just kept up his approach. When he was right in front of Shirou, Azazel raised his hand and gathered magic. The tip of Azazel's index finger started glowing a royal blue colour and he placed his finger on the center of Shirou's forehead. And then at that moment, Shirou felt a repulse going for his mind, the Darkness broke away from his body and faded to nothingness as Shirou collapsed to ground unconscious. On the way down Mika fell out of his grasp and hit the ground herself.

* * *

The scene had changed completely, from an empty wasteland to a hospital in Tokyo. In a hospital room were two beds that both had children sleeping on them, one was Shirou, the other was Mika. The sun shined brightly through the open window as a gentle breeze blew through the room.

They were both in a comatose state and wrapped in bandages, Shirou especially. Everywhere on his body from the neck down was wrapped in bandages while Mika's bandages were only around her torso, and they were both had IV's strapped to them.

Sitting on a chair by the wall and looking over the two siblings was Azazel who brought them here. After a while, he stood up and walked over to their beds and stopped first in front of Mika's bed.

"There's only one thing to do now."

As he said that he gathered magic power over his hand and placed it over Mika's forehead. After a few seconds, he stopped and moved on to Shirou.

"I can take these memories away from them, but their lives from now on will be far less than peaceful. Still, at the very least they won't have to worry about the supernatural. And this way I can also seal his Darkness back up for a little longer." Azazel said to himself as he placed his hand over Shirou's forehead. "I'll keep my promise, Hideki, Mikoto."

Once he was done with Shirou he pulled his arm back and the magic around his hand faded away. As he was about to walk away and leave, he heard a sound and looked back. Azazel saw that Shirou was trying to open his eyes and was barely conscious. Azazel sighed and turned around to leave, saying a few parting words.

"It's okay, your safe now."

 **Music Off**

* * *

Back in the present. Shirou just stood there awestruck at everything that had just flowed through his mind in a flash. If it wasn't for his mental fortitude it might've overwhelmed him enough to make him faint and pass out. That wasn't to say he wasn't feeling something, it almost looked like he was in a trance.

Azazel just sat back down, as if he was waiting for Shirou to responded after processing all that he'd just seen.

After a few more minutes Shirou turned his gaze towards Azazel and finally spoke the words that were on his mind.

"…You were there."

"Yes, I was." Azazel simply replied.

"But I don't get any of this." Shirou placed a hand over his forehead. "What was all that, why were there things I couldn't remember before but can now see clearly and why are somethings different?"

"You've been a Devil for a long enough time to know about memory manipulation magic." Azazel answered. "That's what I used on you and your Sister back that, I basically washed away everyone's identities and anything involving the supernatural."

"But why?" Shirou questioned.

"Well for starters you were just a kid, but honestly anyone who had just gone through all that would have been unstable or even broken on the inside. Learning of the supernatural world and the role you played in all of it definitely would have been too much at the time." Azazel explained. "Still I couldn't change memories that were backed by evidence, I hid who killed your parents but not the fact that they were dead, I changed how you escaped from the torture chamber but not the fact that you were tortured. And you get the idea."

Shirou understood what he was saying. "Then, when I remembered someone had released me…"

"That's right." Azazel knew what he was referring to. "I had to hide the Power of Darkness and since you vaguely saw me at the hospital it was easy to plant the idea that someone had saved you, all I needed to do was blank my face."

Shirou narrowed his eyes. "But what about the people who captured us? Why'd you hide that Bastard's face when he's the one I've wanted to kill my whole life?" He asked what he felt was greatly important. "I can remember how much I wanted to kill him when I was a kid, and I still feel that way now. So why'd you make so I wouldn't even know his face?"

"He was also apart of the supernatural world." Azazel reasoned. "And even if you knew, you were still a child trying to find a way to survive until a few years ago, would knowing of made any difference?"

Shirou grit his teeth frustrated. "Fine, then answer this; Why'd they go after us in the first place and who were they?"

"The reason they targeted you was pretty simple. It's because they knew that you were the descendant of Shirōu Amakusa." Azazel stated. "They were Devils that wanted to completely wipe out that bloodline, a bloodline of a human said to have been chosen by God. And so they believed they could accomplish that by killing the current vessel before he could pass on the blood to the next generation, killing your parents was a bonus because they have been the enemy of Devils for ages."

"But that doesn't make sense. If they wanted me dead they why am I still alive?" Shirou pointed out confused. "They had me right where they wanted me, so why waste time on torture?"

"The lingering spirit isn't something that can easily be destroyed like that." Azazel told him. "Even if you kill the current vessel he can still move to a different source, like another member of your family or something to that extent, so they didn't want to take that chance. In order to completely destroy it, they had to make the vessel awaken and thus bind the spirit to the vessel before killing him. The torture was needed to break you in order to trigger the awakening."

Shirou then clenched his fist and placed a hand over his chest. "But why did the power only come out then? If I could've just come brought it out sooner, then I could've gotten to Mika before she was tortured." He then looked down at the floor. "And maybe… I might've reached Mom and Dad in time."

"My guess is that it was deliberate." Azazel guessed, getting Shirou's attention. "At the end of the day, Shirōu Amakusa is the one who decides if he comes out or not. He most likely could have awakened sooner but chose to wait until he deemed when he could truly claim your body without a struggle, and that ended up being the same time everything took a downward spiral."

Shirou bit his lip so hard it almost cut the skin. "…Damn it." Part of him wanted to scream, but he held it in.

"Fortunately he wasn't able to take over your body that day." Azazel added, like a consolation. "While you were in the hospital not only did I change your memory, I also placed a seal on you. It was a seal designed to inhibit uncontrollable power, it wasn't full proof but it was the best that could be done at the time. Since your awakening was premature it worked. But now that the seal is broke it can't be resealed."

"I know that much already." Shirou told him. "That's what the other me told me before he disappeared."

"And for the last thing you wanted to know; the ones who captured you." Azazel said, with a displeased expression. "They are known as the Old Satan Faction."

Shirou blinked, not familiar with that name. "Old Satan? What's that mean?"

Shirou knew of the Great King Faction led by the Bael Clan and the Devil King Faction led by the Four Satan's and that both Faction more or less ruled the Underworld, but he'd never heard a word about this Old Satan Faction.

"If you want details, ask Rias Gremory or anyone else who had knowledge of the history of the Underworld." Azazel stretched out his arms and got comfortable in his seat. "Now then, I've done what I had intended so I'm done. If you don't have any more questions feel free to go home."

"I have one more question; The most important question." Shirou said, looking serious. "Why were you even involved in any of this? These Old Satan Faction guys had a grudge against my parents and they wanted to destroy the other me so they targeted me and my Sister, but when it all ended you showed up, and you not only rewrote our memories, you sealed the other me. So why would you do all that, what does any of this has to do with the Fallen Angel's top Leader?"

"I had a feeling you'd ask me that." Azazel didn't seem bothered by his question. "All I was doing was repaying a debt."

"A debt?" Shirou repeated, not understanding.

"The truth is those two actually helped me out once." Azazel confessed. "Even though they worked for the Church they didn't follow the same mindset as them, that's why they didn't think of every Fallen Angel or Devil as their enemies before even meeting them, somewhat like you. And so they did me a small favor in the past that was a big help and I owed them one. So when you two were captured they decided to cash in their favor."

"Then, they asked you for help?" Shirou guessed.

"Actually, they asked for one thing; if they happened to not survive they wanted me to make sure their kids would get out of all this safe." Azazel informed him. "They knew if someone like me got involved in a matter between Devils in order to help former High-Ranking warriors of the Church, with the War still fresh on everyone's minds, it would only cause huge problems." He explained, with a frown. "So I waited until it was over and wiped away your memories, they wanted you two to go on living without knowing of any of this."

"Then why did you fix my memories?" Shirou still questioned.

"Your Father asked me to do this; if you two ever did get involved with the supernatural he wanted me to tell you the truth." Azazel told him. "If living a safe life was no longer possible, then at the very least you two deserved the truth."

Shirou then became silent. This was all so much to take in, yet he knew he couldn't deny any of what he has learnt. All he could do was take his leave and so he turned around, headed for the door and opened it. Before walking through it he stopped.

"Are you going to fix Mika's memories?" Shirou asked quietly.

"The spell placed on you two is connected after I fixed yours her memories will come back naturally in less than half a day." Azazel explained. "Just tell her everything I told you and her memories will be restored by the time you're done."

Shirou didn't respond and closed the door behind him.

* * *

Night had fallen over the town and Shirou had quietly made his way back home. He walked in through the door and went to the living room, his eye-lids were half-closed and his shoulders were slumped, he resembled a man who had just returned from drinking at a bar after finishing a long, gruelling day of work. The house was dead silent and no one seemed to be around. No one except Mika sitting on the couch who seemed to be typing on her phone.

Mika noticed his approach and smiled. "Hey, you're back."

"Yeah." Shirou gave a tired response.

Mika's smile dropped when she noticed the state he was in. "Did you go out drinking? What happened, you only come home like this when you've got something weighing on your mind."

She looked a little worried and Shirou just let out a sigh. "Is anyone else here?"

Mika shook her head. "Just me, Asia's out doing her Devil work, so she won't be back a little while."

"That's good." Shirou then went over to the couch and sat down. "There's… There's something I need to tell you."

* * *

 **That's the chapter. The starts things off this chapter was mainly me taking care of everything I felt was leftover from previous events so now we can focus on moving forward. The first on that list was Koneko, it really wouldn't make sense for her to just be okay and be her usual self after seeing Senjutsu which trigger her trauma, so I made her just able to hold it in until the battle was over and afterwards the effects hit home. Plus one of the main reasons why I had Ren's identity hidden for so long was so I could set this up. In Devil Reborn Shirou helped Koneko overcome her turmoil with Senjutsu sooner than the canon and they became really close after that, so I decided to follow that course of action in my version.**

 **The second was Rias. A lot of you seemed upset that Rias left Shirou to be killed and got off scot-free so I decided to bring it up here. Plus when Rias confessed and Shirou described what he believe she felt, for me, that's what I think of her feelings for Issei and all other OC's that replace Issei in other fanfic, all they do is just basically everything Issei said and did just with minor differences and Rias falls for them the same way, which gives you the idea that she fell in love with the actions rather than the specific person.**

 **To avoid that I made their relationship different. Every other OC Protagonist that's paired with Rias usually falls for her first and just blows to her, so it's typically "I love Rias" or "I live to serve Rias". My character wasn't either of those and instead made her fall for him first. Plus her reasons for falling for him were beyond just saving her. And him beating her up was something I added for all you readers out there who wanted something like that.**

 **As for the Lemon, I figured I might as well just add it to let everyone understand exactly where the two of them stand with each other. Shirou and Aika's relationship is simply one of mutual casualness and pleasure, they just care about doing what they are comfortable with without worrying about morals or commitments. That was also my first time ever writing a Lemon and I don't plan on doing this often, so don't expect much.**

 **Finally the last bit of this chapter. It's finally been revealed, who tortured Shirou and gave him and Mika their scars as well as killing their parents; the Old Satan Faction. I had always planned on making them the ones because considering they are hardcore traditionalists on the ways of the Old Devils it would make sense that they would want to kill the bloodline of the most prominent Christian in Japan. Plus it sets them up as more meaningful enemies for Shirou and Mika, especially Shalba.**

 **And I had Azazel be the one who saved them back then as well had him reveal the truth to Shirou because I figured out of all the people in the supernatural world he is the one who is the best at working behind the scenes so it wasn't hard at all putting him in this role. When it comes to Shirou's parents though, at first I wanted to give them a full backstory that was a chapter-long, but it was much harder to put it together than I thought, I had some ideas but I just couldn't make them come together, so I decided to just cut to the chase and show you what you needed to see.**

 **Now the story will be moving forward to the Betrayal of Peace Arc in the next chapter and It'll be a wild Arc**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more then be sure to leave a review if you like the story than click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	25. House Guests And Pool Time

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This chapter will be the start of the Betrayal Of Peace Arc, it'll be a chapter more about dialogue and more about moving things along, but it'll also have a lot of plot. Hope you enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 _ **DRAGON SHOT**_ Attack names.

 _(Shirou)_ Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **House Guests And Pool Time**

* * *

It was another day in the Occult Research Club room, but unlike an ordinary day things were different, in particular the entire mood was rather sullen, to say the least. Not long after speaking with Azazel, Shirou had gone home that night to inform Mika of all the truths he had learnt. And the following morning he had told Asia not wanting to keep this a secret from her. After being shocked and shedding tears for quite a while she had urged him to tell the others as well. Knowing that if he didn't she wouldn't stop asking or maybe even tell them herself, Shirou decided to do so after school. Now the Gremory Peerage, as well as Ren, were just sitting in silence, letting everything Shirou had just told them sink in. Shirou and Mika were just sitting on the couch, waiting to hear a response.

Everyone had changed into their summer uniforms, which was basically just the same thing but without the blazers. Expect Shirou who was still wearing his winter uniform because he preferred it.

Things were so quiet you could hear a pin drop, it was like everyone was just waiting for someone to break the silence and say something, but no one knew what they could say.

Rias was the one who finally broke the silence.

"This certainly is surprising." She spoke, not knowing where to being. "I'm surprised already that the Governor-General of the Fallen Angels was in my territory this whole time, but to think; He had such a connection to you and your parents."

"It's unbelievable." Akeno chimed in. "I'm having a hard time just wrapping my head around all this."

"Yeah, it was a mind-funk for me after last night." Mika said, somewhat tired. "I was just hearing about all this and all the while my memories were unravelling. It was so bad I couldn't even sleep."

"Still though, on some levels there's the upside that you finally know the truth." Ren consoled. "After all, knowing is better than not knowing."

"I guess." Mika sighed.

"Shirou-Kun, how do you feel about all this?" Kiba asked.

Shirou faced him. "What do you mean?"

"Do you really believe everything you were told? No one would blame you if you needed a little more time to take it all in." Kiba explained, trying to be sensitive. "And even then, how do you feel now that you know the identities of the people who were responsible for all your suffering?"

"The Old Satan Faction." Rias said as if the very name disgusted her. "They are beyond scum, those people are swine that can never be forgiven."

Everyone around her obviously felt the same way, even without saying a word, their expressions said it all.

"Oh, that." Shirou surprisingly didn't seem as bothered as they were expecting. "To be honest after I slept on it I realized something. It was a lot to take in but, when you get right down to it things haven't changed, I've been planning to kill them since the beginning. Now I have a name and a face, so now all I need is information, and it won't help to be depressed at this point."

"He's right." Mika added in agreement.

"Even so, I think there's something that needs to be said." Rias said before walking up to him.

Rias made a gesture to him, asking Shirou to stand up and so he did. After which Rias stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, locking him in a tight embrace.

"You've already been through so much that just hearing about it hurt me, I can't even begin to imagine how much pain you had to endure." Rias' voice was filled with caring and tenderness. "I won't tell you to stop or to try and forget, but I will tell you this; If you should ever ask, I will do all I can to help you, I want to be there for you both and to help so that you'll never have to go through such pain again."

While being hugged Shirou could see the faces of the others and they all had similar looks on their faces.

"Shirou-san, I want to help you as well." Asia said, with a caring smile.

"She's right, you can always count on us if you need to." Akeno added with her usual smile.

"…Senpai, I'll do my best." Koneko joined in, quiet but earnest.

"You know I've got your back." Ren grinned.

"You saved me. You're my precious comrade. If I can't save a comrade from crisis then I can't call myself a Knight of the Gremory household." Kiba declared like he was making a vow.

Xenovia just nodded and smiled, showing she was on board to.

Shirou slowly released himself from Rias' hug and sat back down next to Mika. After a few seconds he and Mika faced each other and then smiled like they just thought of something funny, Shirou then faced the others again and spoke.

"I get what you guys are trying to say, but…" Shirou then smirked. "Don't get it twisted, it'll be a Cold Day in Hell before I'll ever need help from you guys."

Hearing those words almost deflated everyone's enthusiasm and they all felt arrows pierce their self-esteem. You'd think they'd be used to this by now but, hearing Shirou say that after all that, it was a little hard to take. However.

"Still though…" Shirou continued, now having a genuine smile. "I really appreciate the sentiment and I'll remember those words. I mean it."

After hearing that everyone's mood went back up. Even though those were simple words, hearing them from Shirou meant a lot. Those who had known him for a while felt almost as if this was some big milestone and had started to become closer.

"You really do have a way with words, Broline." Mika compliment.

"It's a gift." Shirou responded, not being humble about it.

"Still though, what do you assume Azazel is going to do now?" Xenovia questioned, changing the subject. "Even though he said he came to this town to restore Shirou's memory, isn't it concerning that he's still here even after doing just that."

"You have a point." Rias agreed, not liking the situation. "It would be nice if he were just here because the Peace Summit isn't too long from now, but still. You can never be too careful when dealing with Azazel."

"Azazel has always been like that, Rias."

Suddenly, everyone heard a voice that belonged to nobody among the group. Everybody looked at the direction the voice came from and they saw a familiar magic-circle that was the colour Silver and had the Gremory family crest on it. And the ones who appeared from the circle after it faded were… a Crimson-haired male in a suit who was smiling pleasantly. And beside him was a Silver-haired woman in a maid uniform who had a stoic expression.

It was Sirzech Lucifer and his Queen Grayfia.

Rias gasped in surprised at seeing her Brother appear out of nowhere.

"O-O-O-Onii-sama!" She let out a surprised voice. Soon enough everyone who wasn't a Devil or a Tsukiharu was bowing on one knee on the floor, showing respect to the man who was a Devil King. Shirou and Mika just sat, more interested than anything else.

"Azazel won't do anything like Kokabiel did a few days ago. He may do a prank like last time, though. The Governor will come earlier than the planned date." Is what Sirzechs said, feeling pleasant.

Asia and Xenovia were the only Devils who were standing. While Xenovia had a confused expression, the Blonde Bishop stared at the Devil King in amazement. _"This is the Devil King Lucifer? Sirzechs Lucifer-san, Rias-san's older Brother?"_

"You must be Asia Argento." Sirzechs addressed her, taking Asia back a little.

"Y-Yes, sir." She responded.

"You don't have to look so nervous." Sirzechs chuckled a bit. "I never got a chance to speak with you at the after-party back at the Underworld. I've heard that you are an excellent Bishop and that you've been taking good care of my Sister."

"Right." Asia blushed sheepishly.

"Where'd he hear that from?" Ren wondered.

Sirzechs then looked towards him. "And I believe this is the first time we've meet, but I've heard a bit about you; Ren Todo." He walked up to Ren and offered his hand. "I'd like to personally show you my gratitude for your assistance in the battle against Kokabiel."

Ren smiled and accepted his handshake. "It was nothing, Your Majesty."

"Are you the Maou? Nice to meet you, I am the one called Xenovia." This time Xenovia addressed him.

"Good day to you, Xenovia. I am Sirzechs Lucifer." Sirzechs greeted her. "I got the report from Rias. The Holy Sword wielder of Durandal got reincarnated as a Devil, and not to mention becoming part of my Sister's Peerage… Truth be told, I was doubting my ears when I heard it the first time."

"I also didn't think that I would become a Devil. To be reincarnated into the side I kept on killing, even if I say so myself, I sometimes regret it and that it was quite a bold move." Xenovia admitted with a troubled expression and placed her right hand on her forehead. "…Yeah, that's it. Why did I become a Devil? Desperation? However, at that time, truthfully, anything was fine… But, was it really fine to be a Devil?"

"Hahaha." Sirzechs laughed for a moment before he said. "It's great that my little Sister's Peerage has a lot of interesting people. Xenovia, since you were just reincarnated you won't understand your own way but I want you to support the Gremory household as Rias' family. I'll be counting on you."

"If I am asked by the Legendary Maou written in the Bible to do it, then I'll have no choice but to do it." Xenovia answered like she was given an order. "I don't know how much I'll be able to do but allow me to do whatever I can in my capability."

After hearing Xenovia's words, the Maou smiles. That smile was exactly the same as Rias'.

"Onii-sama, w-why are you here?" Rias asked doubtfully.

Well, that was a given. It was not really possible for the Devil King who carries the Devil society to show up in the human world in a school's club room for no real reason.

After she said that, Sirzechs handed over an unfilled printed form.

"What are you saying. Classroom visits are coming soon, right? I am also thinking to participate." Sirzechs answered, sounding excited. "By all means, I want to see my little Sister working hard in studies from up close."

"What?!" Rias gasped. "No way, you can't!"

"If you mean; I can't wait to see my little Sister in action at School, then you're absolutely right." He turned it around on her.

Shirou snorted. "Man, this guy's good. Wish I brought popcorn."

"Watching a powerful woman crumble when faced with an ordinary girl scenario is something every man enjoys." Mika agreed, also enjoying the show. "It happens a lot in Anime."

The redhead then glared at the maid. "Grayfia, right? You're the one who told Onii-sama?"

Grayfia responds to the troubled looking Rias immediately. "Yes, the reports from the school come to me who has been entrusted with the schedule of the Gremory household. Of course, I am Lord Sirzechs' Queen as well, thus I reported it to my master."

"Even if my Maou duties are hard, even if I have to take a day off from my work, I wanted to participate in my little Sister's class visit." Sirzechs continued. "Don't worry. Father will come over as well."

"T-That's not true!" Rias protested, trying to resist it in a cute manner, even her pouting was cute. "Onii-sama is the Great Devil Lucifer! To leave your job and come here! The Devil King can't treat a single Devil in a special way!"

"No no, this is my work as well, Rias." Sirzechs argued, which made Rias gasp. "Actually I thought about conducting the conference between the Three Factions in this school. I came to inspect the meeting place.

"…Here? Really?" Rias had her eyes wide open at this new information well.

The others followed suit, except for two.

"And another point for Sirzechs." Mika commented. "He is dominating this whole conversation."

"Looks like Rias just can't beat this guy." Shirou commented.

"Ah, This School somehow seems to have fate tied to it. My little Sister, you, the legendary Red Dragon Emperor, the Holy-Demonic Sword user, the Holy Sword Durandal's wielder and Maou Serafall Leviathan's little Sister are attached to this place, Kokabiel and the White Dragon Emperor attacked this place." Sirzechs listed with wonder. "This is a phenomenon you can't label as coincidence. Strong powers keep mixing in, it's like wave motion. I think the person accelerating this wave motion is Shirou Tsukiharukun-Kun the Sekiryuutei."

Sirzechs then turned to Shirou.

Shirou just causally waved to him. "How ya doing stretch."

"I'm doing well." Sirzechs responded, not offended at all by Shirou's greeting. "I was hoping to see you again, considering you left so abruptly the last time we meet."

"Lord Sirzechs. It is unbecoming of a Devil King of your position to allow a Low-Class Devil to address you in such a manner." Grayfia said disapprovingly. "Regardless of who they are."

Mika snorted. "Hmph! Nonsense, that's nothing more than a baseless rumor."

"No, you're wrong." Grayfia argued, sternly. "As a Devil King he is at a much higher position than a Low-Class Devil and as such must act in a more befitting manner."

"They're just two guys enjoying a conversation, all that annoying political stuff can wait for the time being." Mika brushed off her argument. "And stop calling my Brother a Low-Class you struck up maid."

"I only call him what he is." Grayfia reasoned.

"Okay, you ask for it." Mika held up her hand.

SNAP!

With a snap of her fingers, a magic-circle suddenly appeared beneath Grayfia's feet and before anyone could question it a strong gust of wind blew upwards from the magic-circle. This wind caused Grayfia's dress to blow upwards and put her undergarments on display for everyone to see.

Rias, Akeno and Koneko jaw dropped, Kiba covered his eyes and looked away, Asia blushed and covered her mouth with her hands, Ren and Xenovia looked surprised and Sirzechs just chuckled nervously.

Shirou just nonchalantly looked at the view. "Huh, maid _do_ wear garter-belts."

Grayfia was NOT amused.

"What is wrong with you?!" Rias hissed into the younger girls ear.

Rias was feeling just as upset as when Mika did something like this the first time. And just like before Mika didn't regret her actions at all.

"What can I say." Mika shrugged. "I am who I am."

PINCH!

"Owie!" And just like before, Grayfia responded to this by pinching Mika's with enough effort to make her cry out in pain. Shirou sighed, sensing this might become a regular thing with these two.

"Listen to me, I am not tolerating this behavior." Grayfia scolded with the same neutral tone. "Your actions are inappropriate and improper. Bad girl." She sounded as if she was scolding a young child.

"Ow-right fane, jush let gow my fasch!" Mika complained feeling like her face was being pinched off.

"Not until you've had adequate punishment for your actions." Grayfia responded, still pulling on Mika's cheeks.

"Alright, that's enough." Shirou decided, pushing Grayfia's arms off his Sister's face. "Keeping going let that and it'll never end."

"I see you still haven't gotten around to fixing her behavior." Grayfia noted disapprovingly.

"And I see you haven't changed at all. Still poking holes at everything." Shirou responded, uncaring. "Don't you ever get tired of being such a straight arrow?"

"Of course not, I am a maid after all." Grayfia answered, not bothered by that fact.

"Hahaha." Sirzechs laughed again for a moment and placed a hand on Grayfia shoulder. "Okay, I think we can leave it at that."

Rias groaned, just glad it was over. "That girl is going to be the death of me."

"Now then, let's continue the difficult conversation somewhere else." Sirzechs said before looking as if he remembered something. "Hmm, however, even though I came to the human world, I don't really know my way around. Would I be able to find a lodging institution on such short notice?"

"You can stay at my place for the night." Shirou offered.

"I can?" Sirzechs asked gratefully.

"He can?" Rias asked, not so happy with that idea.

Shirou just nodded. "Yeah, we have plenty of extra space, and besides." Shirou looked directly at Sirzechs. "There's actually something I want to ask you."

"I see, well I don't really mind answering any question you have for me." Sirzechs then smiled at him. "And so we'll be imposing on you for tonight, I am grateful."

* * *

Later it was nighttime and just as they agreed upon Sirzechs and Grayfia were present and staying for the night. Rias who didn't want her Brother to be at their house by himself decided to go with them and so she was staying the night as well. Shirou didn't mind so he allowed it. Now they were all in the living room sitting at the dining table while Shirou was in the kitchen preparing a meal.

"Why did you invite them over." Rias asked, clearly unhappy by all this.

"We like interesting company." Mika reasoned. "Besides, Big Bro owns the house so he gets to decided who stays over."

"But still…" Rias sighed, like a complacent school-girl. "Why did it have to be my Brother?"

"This is a nice house." Sirzechs admired looking around. "It feels much more homely than where I live."

"Where do you live?" Asia questioned.

"Lucifer's castle in the Underworld's new capital town of Luciferd." Grayfia answered. "It was built in honor of the new Lucifer and to be his place of residence rather than occupying the old Lucifer's castle of the late old Lucifer."

"Luciferd?" Mika raised a brow. "Seriously?"

Sirzechs chuckled a bit. "Don't look at me, I didn't name the town."

"Moving on, you said new capital and old castle." Mika noted. "Mind going into more detail?"

"I don't mind at all, in the past the former Devil King Lucifer ruled from his castle, Lucifer's castle that was built in the Underworld's old capital city, it was named Lilith sharing the same name as the wife of Lucifer and the mother of all Devils Lilith." Grayfia explained its history. "After the Great War where the Devil Kings perished and new ones were chosen it was decided that a new Lucifer's castle would be built and the town it was in would become the new capital, that is Luciferd, while it the old Lucifer's castle would remain unoccupied and instead became a historical landmark."

"Learning more about the history of Devils is always so fascinating." Asia said, smiling with interest. "Thank you for explaining all that, Grayfia-san."

Grayfia nodded. "It was my pleasure."

"On an unrelated note, I've noticed something." Mika started. "Sirzechs, Grayfia is your Queen and yet she's also a maid, plus she sometimes speaks for you. What's up with that weird blend?"

"Oh, that's simple. You see Grayfia only acts as a maid because of her personal preference." Sirzechs explained, cheerful. "But she's actually my wife."

[Eeh?]

Everyone except Rias let out gasps, but Grayfia was expressionlessly pinching Sirzechs' cheek like she did to Mika's.

"I am the maid, Grayfia." Grayfia corrected, harshly. "I apologize for my master speaking such boring jokes."

"It huwts, It huwts, Grayfia." Sirzechs said through the pain.

The angry yet quiet Grayfia and the teary-eyed smiling Sirzechs. Rias who was beside them covered her face with her hands from embarrassment.

"Sorry, Grayfia but we all heard of it." Shirou said coming out of the kitchen, with trays of food. "You're his wife."

Grayfia sighed and let go of her King's cheek. "Fine, I admit that it's true."

"My do you want to hide it?" Asia asked confused.

"Personal reasons?" Grayfia simply replied.

"Does it have to do with the fact that you like dressing as a maid?" Mika questioned.

Grayfia chose not to answer.

"Who cares about all that. Anyway, since we have guests I decided to make something special." Shirou said, placing the food on the table. "Hope you all like beef."

"You didn't have to do this by yourself." Grayfia said, trying to be considerate. "At least let me help you set the table."

"Ah, ah, ah." Shirou immediately stopped her. "This is _my_ house and in _my_ house, guests enjoy themselves during a meal, so sit down and enjoy yourself."

Grayfia was surprised for a second but decided to comply and sat back down.

"Oh, this is going to be great." Mika said, preparing for the food.

"I can't wait." Asia agreed, though with less enthusiasm.

"I have to admit, I've been looking forward to Shirou's cooking as well." Rias admitted, happily waiting for the meal.

"Is it really that good?" Sirzechs asked curiously.

"Trust me when I say, you have not lived until you've tried Big Bro's cooking." Mika said, not exaggerating.

"That's quite a statement." Sirzechs now seemed excited.

"I'm interested in it myself." Grayfia added.

And thus Shirou lifted the metal lids off the plates and it let out the strong and incredibly tantalizing scent that could only come from cooked and tenderized meat. The mouthwatering smell immediately wafted forth and Grayfia and Sirzechs found themselves unable to resist to desires to sniff it in.

On the plates were beef stakes, each cooked with the utmost care and precision that made just looking at it enough to tell you it was delicious. The beef was a rich colour and still steaming while it had a sauce of the top and some cut lettuce of the side.

Soon the Crimson-haired man and the Silver-haired woman noticed everyone was looking at them with anticipation as if they wanted them to eat first. Deciding to go ahead they both picked up their utensils, cut a piece of a piece and took a bite.

.

.

.

On the outside, their eyes went wide and they froze completely.

On the inside, the moment it entered the mouth they felt the meat just melt softly on the tongue, it's juices just explode with each new chew, mixing in with the sauce in a vibrate dance of flavour and life. Adding rich texture of the meat and the perfect addition of the sauce and the two of them felt like they were flying through an endless trail of delectable taste that made the taste-buds sing and the whole body feel at peace.

"Amazing." Sirzechs breathed out, awestruck. "This is easily the most amazing meat dish I've ever tasted."

"I am almost ashamed to say this but, even the best chef in the Gremory household couldn't dream of making a dish as good as this." Grayfia admitted, honestly amazed. "Just a single bite has left me breathless."

"Hahaha! I know it'd be great." Mika commented.

"I remember the first time I tasted Shirou's cooking." Rias smiled. "I had the same reaction."

"That's because Shirou-san is an amazing chef." Asia praised.

"Damn right, I'm the best damn chef in this world or the next." Shirou then sat down himself. "Now quit gawking and eat it before it gets cold."

And with that everyone dug in and enjoyed the meal, it was someone only those who experienced it could truly appreciate. They all took their time and savoured every bite, letting themselves enjoy it to the fullest. Still, it wasn't long until they all cleared their plates. The meal was over and it was easy to tell everyone was satisfied.

"A meal fit for a king if I do say so myself." Shirou said, leaning back into his chair.

"Anyone who eats like that every day certainly dines like a king." Sirzechs added.

Shirou then clapped his hands. "Whelp, time for the cleanup."

"Please allow me." Grayfia offered, standing up. "At least let me do this much, it's my way of thanking you for the meal."

"I'll help you." Asia said, standing up herself.

The two of them gathered up the dishes and went to the kitchen to clean up. With that decided Shirou got up anyway and reached for something inside the fridge. Coming back to the table Shirou brought out a bottle of alcohol and a few cups.

"Since dinner over let's have some after-meal drinks." Shirou suggested, pouring the drink.

"Shirou we can't drink, we're in High School." Rias reminded him.

"Fine then me and the Big Guy will do the drinking." Shirou offered a poured glass to Sirzechs. "Here have some Vodka, you like Vodka? Yeah you do~"

"Well, I suppose one drink couldn't hurt." Sirzechs accepted the drink and drank it. "Aah, a refreshing taste after dinner."

"What'd I tell ya." Shirou then drank some himself.

Mika nudged Rias' shoulder. "Heh, Your big Brother and Your love interest are sharing drinks, looks like they're getting along great already."

"Yes, it seems like Shirou always gets along with the men in my family in no time at all." Rias noted a little slump. "The women however take a bit more effort."

Mika shrugged. "It's a guy thing."

* * *

A little while had passed after dinner and things were pleasant for everyone. The mood was a relaxed one and the conversations they had seemed to keep going without anyone losing interest. So much so that they had lost track of time at some point.

It was now time for bed.

"No-No way… I can't sleep together with Shirou?"

Rias cried out, pleading that it wasn't true, she was standing at Shirou's doorway, wearing her nightgown. In the room, Shirou was standing with Sirzechs who was wearing pajamas.

When it came time for sleeping arrangements since there were three bedrooms and six people staying in this house tonight everyone had to share their room with someone. Thus Asia and Mika were sharing a room, Rias and Grayfia were sharing a room and the last room which was Shirou's room was being used by Shirou and Sirzechs. Despite that Rias clearly wanted to argue with this arrangement.

"I wanted to talk with him a bit while before going to bed and remember he invited me over because he wanted to have a talk with me." Sirzechs reasoned with her. "Sorry, Rias, but just for tonight lend me Shirou Tsukiharu-Kun."

Shirou just looked confused by this conversation. "Should've been obvious you weren't going to share a room with me, I mean it's not like you stay here often in the first place." He pointed out.

Rias then suddenly threw herself onto Shirou, hugging him tightly which somewhat surprised him. "That's what upsets me the most. It's been so long since I could stay over at your house and so I was looking forward to being able to sleeping next to you again. Now hearing that I can't is almost too much for me to bear." She sounded like she was going to cry.

 _"Has she always been this clingy?"_ Shirou thought to myself, feeling Rias was overreacting. _"Either her personality changed or she's always been really dependant and I've just never noticed."_

Rias pulled away and looked into his eyes with her hands on his shoulders. "Can you sleep alone? Are you alright with me not being beside you? I am not alright though. Just by you not being beside me…" Shirou had to hold in the urge to sigh about how much of a Drama-Queen Rias was being. It was as if her level of affection and dependence towards him had tripled ever since the day she confessed her feelings to him.

Shirou slowly pulled her hands off his shoulders. "Trust me, I'll be fine." He told her in a dry tone.

"Come now, my Lady." Rias looked over her shoulder and saw Grayfia standing by the doorway. "It's time for us to return to our room."

Rias nodded. "Yes, of course, thank you Grayfia."

Grayfia walked over to the redheaded Devil heiress and grabbed her hand. "Sleep well, gentlemen." The maid said with a bow. She then takes Rias away.

"Goodnight Shirou, and sweet dreams." Rias said her final goodbye and was pulled out of the room.

Before Shirou could go to his bed however, Asia walked into the doorway, with Mika behind her.

"Ah, Um, Shirou-san goodnight." She said with a sad smile. "I also think it's unfortunate, but I'll also but sleeping in my own room."

Shirou raised a brow. "Yeah… Don't you always?"

While still keeping her sad smile, Asia slightly bowed her head and headed off towards her room.

Mika stayed. "Kinda get's ya don't it."

"Not really, they're both always like this when they're together in one place." Shirou sighed. "Just don't say you wanted to share a room with me too."

Mika shook her head, looking serious. "Not for tonight, ask what you want to know about."

Shirou knew what she meant and nodded. Mika then followed Asia's lead and headed for her room.

* * *

Later that night, all the lights were turned off and the house was as quiet as a grave. Shirou laid in his bed and stared at the ceiling. He turned his head and looked downwards. Sirzechs slept on a futon next to the bed. Lying on his back with an elegant posture the demonic-aura surrounding him is quiet, nothing like the overwhelming aura he felt the last time they meet, but even an amateur could sense the terrifying concentration of magic power he had.

Probably just by concentrating a bit of his power would reduce everything around him to dust.

Shirou inhaled some air and decided to break the ice. But before he could.

"I'd like to thank you." Sirzechs whispered.

Shirou blinked. "For what?"

The man chuckled for a second and opened his eyes. Turning his head slightly to the left to look up at Shirou. "It's just that, in our world, it's unthinkable for me to be treated as an ordinary house guest in someones home. I'm enjoying the change, so thank you. You've been a wonderful host." He closed his eyes. "I actually feel a lot more comfortable here than I would be at some hotel."

"Come to think of it, you seemed more worn-out than you let on at dinner." Shirou noticed. "Why is that?"

"Oh, you noticed that." Sirzechs sat up. "Well, the truth is things have been rather stressful back home and I guess I just needed a breather."

"Stressful?" Shirou raised a brow. "What would you have going on to be stressful about?"

"More than you'd think actually." Sirzechs then looked down, a bit bothered. "For one thing as the Devil King, I'm in a consist power struggle with the Great King Faction, not to mention there are still some Nobles who are upset about the declining number of Pureblood Devils and increase in Stray Devils. And to top it all off I'm almost always in the middle of arguing with one thing or another with the Underworld's Noble Council made up of the heads of all the Noble households. When they all agree on something even I have trouble stopping them."

"Really, but aren't you the Great Devil King Lucifer?" Shirou questioned, now really confused. "I thought you were the dominant power that rules over the whole Underworld."

"That may be true on paper, but I don't have the same power as the old Lucifer." Sirzechs admitted. "Let me explain, there are Four Devil Kings including myself; Leviathan is the head of dealing with foreign affairs, Beelzebub is the chief of all research and development in the government, Asmodeus is the top commander in all military affairs, and I Lucifer am in charge of all internal affairs. That is the structure of the Four Great Devil Kings system."

"But I don't get it then. If you four handle everyone then what to the other Nobles do?" Shirou questioned.

"Well, that's the thing. Aside from managing their own households, the Nobles hardly do anything." Sirzechs answered, regrettably. "Before the Great War the Nobility of the Underworld was vast and made up almost the whole population, but after the War when we were chosen to lead the Underworld the Nobles just went back to living how they used to, all the while expecting someone else the clean up the mess the War left us with."

"You've got to be kidding me, you're saying people who sit around and do nothing have equal saying on how the government works as those who work their asses off every day and just because of bloodlines? That makes no sense." Shirou stated, completely bewildered by the very concept. "How can a society even function like that?"

"I understand it might seem ridiculous to some, but in our world, people take bloodlines and rank very seriously. For example, the Bael family who leads the Great King Faction once led the Seventy-Two Pillars and as such, they have more influence they anyone in the Underworld. And considering they are extremely traditional and try to hold on to their position as the highest-ranking household in the Underworld, it was inevitable that we would split off into different Factions." Sirzechs explained. "In fact, the founder of the Bael family; Zekram Bael is the one who chose me and the others to be the New Devil Kings and even now, he has more influential power than any of us individually."

Shirou sighed and laid down. _"I think I get. There are two different kinds of governments; the first was the olden day kind where the rich and Nobles ruled, it was all about power struggles and which family was superior to which, you had to double-check everything you did to make sure someone couldn't use it against you and drag your name through the dirt."_ Shirou thought, irritated. _"The second is the modern-day governing system run by politics. Those with high standing keep trying to push others down in order to get their way, there's no low they wouldn't stoop to and people would build factions to boast their own power or influence. Everyone was enemies and had ulterior motives in everything they would do. The Underworld is an unhealthy mix of both."_

Shirou then looked back at Sirzechs. "You're right, that must be stressful as hell."

"Well it's not all bad, there are some good days." Sirzechs said, looking at peace. "Still though, times like tonight where I can just relax and enjoy myself without worry truly are a delight."

"By the way, you said someone chose you to be Devil Kings, you were chosen because you're the Strongest Devil, but what about the other three Maou?" Shirou questioned, curious. "Why were they chosen?"

"Many reasons, for one, for one thing, the current Leviathan has great skill in negotiation and finding solutions to placate two arguing parties. plus she a prodigy among the Sitri family. And Asmodeus is actually one of the greatest military strategists in the history of the Underworld." Sirzechs explained, with pride in their abilities. "But the greatest of all of them is Beelzebub, he's a genius among genius', not only is he strong beyond belief but he's also a brilliant scientist, he's the one who created the Evil Pieces."

That made Shirou sit up and got his full attention. "Hold the presses, you're saying one guy creating the entire Evil Piece system? The power-ups, the promotions, the reincarnations and the Rating Game. He made all that?"

Sirzechs nodded. "Amazing isn't it? He's actually considered the most valuable of the Devil Kings, even more so than myself. And he's been my closest friend since I was a child."

"Woah, guess there are all kinds of Devils out there." Shirou said quietly as he laid back down. "Wonder how Mika would compare to him?"

"Shirou-Kun, this isn't what you wanted to ask me about, is it?" Sirzechs said, knowingly. "I heard you met Azazel. So I have a good idea of what you wanted to ask me."

Shirou was quiet for a moment and then sighed. "…...Yeah, you're right. There is something else I wanted to ask you."

"Good ahead, I'll answer any question you have truthfully." Sirzechs promised.

"Fine then, tell me…..." Shirou looked at him, serious. "What's the Old Satan Faction?"

Sirzechs frowned, hesitant at that question. "You could've asked Rias if you wanted to know about that."

"I already know you would know more about this than her." Shirou reasoned.

Sirzechs looked down. "Very well then, as you already know after the Great War, all of the original Satans died and new Kings were chosen. But the dead Devil Kings left behind living descendants who insisted that they were the rightful leaders. The Old Satan Faction is a group of Pure Devils who also believed that and swore allegiance them and their ambitions."

"That sounds like the start to a huge problem." Shirou said, with full attention. "So what happened next."

"Even though the War had ended they were dissatisfied, they believed that as Devils we were the superior race and should keep the War going until all the Angel and Fallen Angels were destroyed. Those of the Great King Faction were against it because it would've to lead to our race being wiped out in the process." Sirzechs then grimaced at what happened next. "And so, faced with no other alternative a Civil War broke out."

"Another War?" Shirou said, surprised but this new information. "But you just got through a War, what kind of idiot just jumps straight into a second one?"

"Unfortunately idiots like me and all the other Devils from back then." Sirzechs answered upset. "The winning side would control the Underworld. On one side was the Old Satan Faction on the other was us off the Anti-Satan Faction. We fought almost endlessly, I was the Ace of my Faction and was almost always on the front lines along with with Ajuka Astaroth; the one who would go on to become Beelzebub. The two of us were called Super Devils for our unnatural strength and abilities."

"Super Devils, I've heard that term before." Shirou said offhandedly. "It means a Devil who has an unusual and unique ability that no other Devil has and they're at a level of power beyond Satan-Class or even God-Class strength. They're Ultra Rare and some believe they don't exist."

"Well there wrong, because there's one right here." Sirzechs pointed to himself.

"But if the two of you were Super Devils, shouldn't winning the Civil War been easy for you?" Shirou asked, not getting it.

"That would have been the case, but sadly we weren't the only ones." Sirzechs said grimly. "There was actually a third Super Devil, and he was from the Old Satan Faction."

Shirou's eyes went wide. "Who was he?"

"The son of the old Lucifer." Sirzechs answered with disgust. "He was a hateful and disgusting man, to say the least, but his power rivalled or possibly surpassed my own at the time. Strangely enough though, at some point he just disappeared without a trace."

"He disappeared?" Shirou repeated, confused. "Did he die?"

Sirzechs shook his head. "No he just vanished, it's like he just dropped off the face of the world one day. But without him, the War quickly shifted into our favour and before long the Anti-Satan Faction was victorious. As for the Old Satan Faction, they were stripped of all Rank and position and all banished to the furthest corner of the Underworld."

"You didn't kill them?" Shirou was taken aback. "Why didn't you kill them? That's what you're _supposed_ to do after a War."

"I realized it may seem naive. But remember we Devils take bloodlines and traditions very seriously and despite everything, they were still the living descendants of our former Kings." Sirzechs looked down with regret. "Even now, I wonder if there could have been another solution instead of banishing them."

Shirou just looked at him with half-lidded eyes and groaned. "You're too soft, you know that?"

Sirzechs chuckled unoffended by the remark. "Perhaps I am. Still, though that wasn't the end of it." He continued. "For our achievements in the War, the four of us become the new Maou. But the Bael family still intended to be the true rulers of the Underworld. We didn't accept that and so the Anti-Satan Faction became the New Devil King Faction and spilt off from the Great King Faction. Now we're in consist power struggles in the government."

Shirou faced palmed. "First the other Factions, then other Devils, and now each other. It's like you people can never stop getting into conflicts. When one enemy's gone you immediately look for another one."

"Yes, I know. I've always wished everyone stop feuding with each other and just try to find agreement. But unfortunately, that ideal is a long way off." Sirzechs said, with some disappointment.

"Back to the point. Have the Old Satan Faction turned up ever since the Clive War?" Shirou still pressed for answers.

"They have, more often than you'd think." Sirzechs answered, frowning. "There have been several incidents every so often about an attack or crime against the current Devil Kings and their families in which they were responsible. And they hate Angels and Fallen Angels as well, so there are times they attack Grigori, Heaven, the Church or anyone involved with those groups."

Shirou grits his teeth and clenched his fist after hearing that. Then took a breather and calmed himself. "Thanks for telling me all that."

"Think nothing of it, I'm just glad I was able to tell you what you wanted to know." Sirzechs assured him. "Oh and one more thing." He smiled. "Thank you for looking after my little Sister for so long, Shirou-Kun."

Shirou just closed his eyes and smirked. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

And with that Shirou laid back down and let himself fall asleep. Sirzechs decided to follow suit and closed his eyes while resting his head on his pillow. It was long before the two Devils drifted off into slumber all through the night.

* * *

It was several days after Sirzechs' visit. Sirzechs and Grayfia left Shirou's house the day after they stayed over at his place. Although he claimed that he was investigating the city, you could tell with a single glance that he was more interested in sightseeing…

For starters; He went to the game centres and played every game he could, (seems like he wants to establish game centres in the underworld), at the hamburger shop he tested out all the flavours (he said he wanted to open chains of restaurants in the underworld…), next he went to the Shinto shrine (with a Maou's absolute demonic power the shrine's Holy power was driven away, so he could go inside.), despite being an absolute force of destroyed that reigned over the whole Underworld, outside of working hours he acts no different than a kid.

The man-child side of Sirzechs was something that just made others cringe.

Anyway, right now Shirou was walking to school along with Asia and Xenovia.

After becoming a Devil she didn't have a home to return to. So for that purpose, she started living in this city but seems like she didn't like sleeping in the Old School Building so she rented an apartment. She is living alone in an apartment near Shirou's house. And so the three of them were going to school together. Today is a holiday but, because they apparently had something important their Peerage need to do, they had to head to the school anyways.

Naturally, that was a drag for Shirou. But Asia and Xenovia didn't have a problem and were enjoying each others company.

"Asia, were you able to finish last night's homework?" Xenovia asked while walking.

Asia nodded. "Yes. What about you, Xenovia-san?"

"Well, I don't know some things that are in Japanese. Would you teach me?" Xenovia requested.

"Yes! Please leave it to me!... But, Kanji is still a bit…" Asia hesitated.

Though Xenovia knew exactly what she was trying to say. "Me too. It's really scary that the Japanese learn these complex characters. I am catching a glimpse of a part of a major economic power."

 _"Do they not realize as Devils they can just use magic to understand the language?"_ Shirou thought, surprised by their naivety.

Asia and Xenovia. Initially, when they met it was really bad but somehow the fact that these two were disciples of Christianity was probably the main reason their relationship deepened.

"I see. This is also the Lord's guidance." Asia decided.

"Yes, it is the Lord's guidance." Xenovia agreed.

[Amen… Ouch!] They both put their hands together and prayed, only to receive damage from doing so yet again.

"You'd think they'd get a clue already." Shirou muttered to himself. "God's dead, they learned just days ago."

 _BUZZ!_

Suddenly Shirou heard his phone vibrate which told him he had a text. He checked his phone and saw he had two new text messages; one from Rias, the other from Akeno. Deciding to check what they sent he saw that both texts simply had a picture attached to them. And surprising enough both pictures were selfies of the two of them, each in a swimsuit.

Rias was wearing a two-piece white bikini that was a very revealing in which the top was held together by and bottoms were held together by small gold rings on the front and by the sides, plus the bikini was one-size too small. Not mention Rias was posing in a sedative position. Akeno was also wearing a two-piece blue and red designed string bikini that was also one-size too small. Like Rias, she was also posing in a sedative position.

Not knowing how to respond to this, Shirou just texted them both the same thing.

{Send Nudes}

After typing that message he sent it and put his phone away.

"Shirou-san." Asia came up to him. "Is something wrong, you've been silent for a while."

"It's nothing." Shirou brushed off as they continued their march to school.

* * *

About half an hour later the Occult Research Club all gathered in a location different from the club room for a change. Shirou, Asia and Xenovia arrived at the roof of one of the school buildings to see that Rias along with all the other members of the Gremory Peerage were already there and in front of them was a swimming pool. But not exactly a good pool, rather one where the water was a moss green colour and covered with moss and dead leaves floating on the surface, it was a real disgusting site.

"Three questions." Shirou raised his finger. "One; why are we at school when it's not a school day? Two; why are we meeting by the school pool? And three; why does the pool like a Canadian waste dump?"

"To answer your third question; The pool hasn't been used in a year." Akeno told him, happily. "It needs a good cleaning."

Shirou raised a brow. "Your point?"

"Apparently it's up to us to clean it." Mika answered, not happy about it either.

"How does it make sense for our club to clean the swimming pool." Xenovia asked.

"It's actually the Student Council's job, but we've taken it over." Rias explained to the others. "We thought doing this for them would be a great way of thanking them for all their help against Kokabiel. On the plus side, after we finish cleaning it, the pool will be ours to use as often as we please, at least for a while."

"You mean you dragged me all the way out here just for that?" Shirou questioned, clearly not satisfied. "I don't even go swimming, how's that a plus side for me?"

"Plus the Sitri family is known to be masters of Water magic so Sona could literally clean this 10x faster than us." Mika complained, slumping. "And I can't even swim, so I'm basically doing this for nothing."

"Come on now, the sooner we start the sooner we get this done." Rias reassured them. "Besides after were done cleaning you can leave whenever you so choose."

Shirou sighed. "Fine, whatever."

* * *

Shirou and Kiba were now in the guys looker-room, changing into their gym clothes. After Akeno used her magic to remove the water from the pool, all they had to do is remove the moss leftover. So now all the club members went into the locker-rooms to change into their gym clothes to do just that.

As Shirou was getting changed, once he removed his shirt, he looked down at his bandages and placed a hand over his chest. Let out a tired sigh and having an upset expression. "…Damn it."

"Shirou-Kun." Kiba suddenly came up to him with his shirt unbuttoned. "I…?" He suddenly stopped talking when he saw Shirou's bandages and expression. "Your bandages."

"Yeah." Shirou said looking down. "I know it seems weird to be sensitive about it now, considering everybody's already seen what's beneath them. But, I'm still not comfortable with them and it always brings me down when I have to look at them."

"I understand. Is that why you don't like swimming?" Kiba asked, trying to be sensitive.

"It's part of the reason." Shirou simply replied, before changing the subject. "Anyways, what were you going to say before?"

"Oh right." Kiba remembered before he declared. "I wanted to tell you that; from now on, I will protect you."

Shirou just stared, not knowing how to respond to that. "…Um, okay…?"

"I know it seems random, but I wanted to wait until we were alone before I could tell you this." Kiba continued. "You saved me. You're my precious comrade and a true friend who stood by me even at my worst. If I can't return the favour then I can't call myself a 'Knight' of the Gremory household."

"I get what you're trying to say, but I don't think it'll go as well as you're hoping. For one thing, you're weaker than me so it'll be pretty tough to protect someone who's already at a higher level." Shirou reminded him. "Besides, you're not my 'Knight' you're Rias'. Protecting her should be enough for you."

"I suppose you're right but still, there's no problem. My Sacred Gear that attained Balance Breaker and your Boosted Gear, if we combine these two, then I feel we can surpass even a dangerous crisis." Kiba declared proudly before letting out a small laugh. "…Fufu, I wasn't the type to say such things before. After hanging out with you, my readiness for comrades also changed as well. I don't know why but I don't dislike that… It's the same thing for this heat I feel around my chest region."

"I'm pretty sure that's called compassion." Shirou informed him.

"Compassion. Yes, I'm sure you're right." Kiba said, happily gripping his chest, before looking determined. "But I mean what I said, should you ever require it just say the word, and my Holy-Demonic Sword will be ready to aid you anytime or place."

"I'll… Keep that in mind." Shirou relented.

Shirou decided to just let Kiba have this one, after all he knew that Kiba meant well and there was no real reason to just shot him down. Still, he doubted that he would need him or anyone to rush into his rescue in the near future.

* * *

When the pool was completely cleaned and looking brand new, everyone got changed again and this time into their swimsuits.

First Rias who and Akeno who were wearing the same swimsuits they wore in the selfies they sent Shirou.

Next was Koneko and Asia who were wearing blue one-piece stereotypical school swimsuits, Asia's one had her name written on the chest area and Koneko was wearing a white swimming cap on her head.

Finally was Mika who was the same thing she wore when they went to the beach; a purple hoodie that went down to her waist while the hood was over her head, and a white mini-skirt.

Behind them was Kiba and Shirou who were also wearing the same thing they wore to the beach.

Shirou was wearing a black T-shirt and an open dark blue hoodie, and white shorts that reached down to knees. And Kiba wore his black Speedo again.

Xenovia was nowhere to be seen.

Akeno was standing on one of the pool's stone diving boards. The 'Queen' then raised her hand towards the sky and summoned a magic circle to appear right over the middle of the pool. From it, a large body of water spilt out and filled the pool.

As everyone got ready to swim, Shirou and Mika just sat beside the wall, Mika just took out her phone and used it to occupy herself.

"Hey, Shirou." Rias called out, approaching him. "What do you think of my new swimsuit?" She asked while posing.

Before he can answer, Akeno approaches as well. "Ara, Ara. This really getting to you isn't it, Chief?" Akeno said, somewhat amused. "It's adorable on how bad you want to impress Shirou-Kun with your swimsuit." She giggled.

Huffing slightly Rias turned towards Akeno. "And I suppose you're only wearing yours to show off for yourself?"

"Sure." Akeno smiled, not even bugged at all.

"Why do you two bother asking?" Shirou questioned, raising a brow. "I already saw both your swimsuits from the selfies you sent me."

"What, Akeno sent you one too?" Rias asked, surprised and not happy with Akeno.

"I don't see how that's a problem." Akeno pointed out, not bothered by Rias' displeasure.

Mika scratched her chin. "Hmm, I don't know. I think I prefer the swimsuits they wore at the beach."

"Did those things even count as swimsuits?" Shirou asked, skeptical.

"They were practically Nude which is what made them so good." Mika explained, with a reasoning only she would get. "It fits their character-Types perfectly."

"Which is why I texted back Send Nudes." Shirou informed her. "If they're not going to bother hiding it, might as well just show the whole thing." He then noticed Mika didn't reply and looked at her to see that she was just staring at him with a surprised expression. "What?"

"I am so proud of you right now." Mika's voice was silent but sincere.

Shirou softly slapped his hand on his face. "Don't get creepy on me."

"S-Shirou-san!" Asia called out in a cheery voice and Shirou looked to see her with Koneko. "I've also changed into my swimsuit." She said with her hands behind her back and a beaming smile.

"You realizing you two look like walking cliches right." Shirou asked, unimpressed.

"Completely incorrect." Mika argued. "The school swimsuit loli character is a timeless troupe that can work anywhere, be it a beach or a pool. And not only are they cute but they fit in _all_ the right places." She was referring to how tightly their swimsuits hugged their bodies.

Asia heard how suggestively Mika described her swimsuit and felt embarrassed, to the point where she blushed and used her hands to cover her private parts. "P-Please don't say things like that."

"Well then don't give her ammunition." Shirou told her, before noticing something. "Speaking of awkward women, where's Xenovia?"

Asia smiled sheepishly. "She had a little trouble putting on her swimsuit and told me to go on without her."

"And yet she has no problem putting on that black-leather spandex uniform." Shirou said with half-lidded eyes.

Mika patted him on the shoulder. "It's all about practice, Bronos."

* * *

Later everyone began to enjoy themselves at the pool. Kiba immediately jumped in and started swimming laps. Rias and Akeno were having a race across the pool, in which both girls were swimming elegantly trying to swim faster than the other. And Asia and Koneko were learning how to swim.

Turns out Koneko didn't know how to swim and wanted to learn how. Asia also didn't know how to swim and so they both decided to learn together. Right now they were holding hands while Asia was walking backwards in the shallow end of the pool as she was helping Koneko with kick-peddling exercises. After they reach the end of the pool they would switch places.

"Keep it up, Koneko-chan!" Asia cheered her on while helping her.

Koneko was taking small breaths in between with a 'Puwa' sound and was peddling her feet with the utmost effort. "Puwa. …Asia-Senpai, sorry for making you help me out…" She said apologetically.

"Don't apologize, after all I can't swim either. So we're helping each other." Asia assured her, smiling cheerfully.

The Tsukiharu siblings were still just sitting by the wall and just watching everyone spend their time.

"You know I wasn't into this at first, but now I glad I came." Mika changed her opinion.

"Do I want to know why?" Shirou said rhetorically.

"Oh come on, Pool episodes are just as beloved as Beach episodes." Mika started. "You can enjoy the classics like swimsuits and Ecchi scenes while seeing fresh material that doesn't rehash old scenes."

"In other words; nothing that interests me." Shirou replied, before warning her. "Just don't do anything like you did at the beach."

"First of all I still don't know what you mean, I didn't do anything back then." Mika feigned innocence, though Shirou didn't buy it. "Secondly, I won't have to. While in the changing room and used my keen strategic abilities to look over multiple scenario's on what could happen today and which are most likely to happen." She said, proudly. "After doing the Math I can confidently say things will play out great without my lifting a thing."

"Yeah, and how's that?" Shirou still didn't believe her.

"Shirou~" Rias called to him, laying on her stomach on top of a pool towel with her bikini top untied. She was looking at him over her shoulder with a sedative gaze and holding a bottle of suntan lotion. "Would you help me rub lotion on my back."

Shirou scratched the back of his head, feeling this was familiar. "Again?"

"And the ball starts rolling." Mika commented, excited.

Shirou shrugged, got up and went towards Rias. "Whelp, I needed something to do."

He then stopped in front of Rias and knelled down, putting lotion on his hands which he used to start rubbing on Rias' bareback, starting from her lower back. Rias let out a low moan at the feeling of her Pawn's hands trailing down her back. Shirou started working his way up, rubbing her softly with a gentle yet firm pressure. He didn't show much emotion though, it was like he was a chiropractor doing his job.

"That feels so great~" Rias turned to look at Shirou over her shoulder, as his hands reached her shoulders, Rias gave him a sedative smile."Would you like to rub some on my chest too?"

"You can reach your front side easily." Shirou pointed out like it was obvious. "Why would you need me to do it?"

"True I could, but I don't mind letting you have a nice feel on my body if it'll make you happy." Rias told him, hoping he'll say yes. "If you aren't satisfied with my chest, choose anywhere else, my body is your's to do with however you please~"

"I'm sensing a pattern." Shirou noticed. "Lately you're becoming really pushy about me touching you."

"Is that a no?" Rias asked with a smirk.

Shirou shook his head. "Nah, it's all the same to me. Besides I've seen you Naked enough times to not be fazed by it anymore." He then picked up the bottle of lotion. "Now turn around."

Rias was about to gladly comply when just then, Akeno surprised both of them by hugging Shirou from behind, with her bikini top gone and her bare breasts pressing against his back. "Ara, Ara, What going on here." She asked with her head over his shoulder. "Looks like fun, mind if I join in?"

"Are you not wearing a top?" Shirou questioned, before realizing something. "Ah Shit, this is what Mika was talking about." He mumbled under his breath.

"Akeno, that is highly inappropriate!"Rias stood up and looked at Akeno with fierce eyes filled with displeasure. But it also left her chest completely exposed and out in the open. "He hasn't finished with me yet!"

"Like you're in a position to be calling anyone inappropriate." Shirou commented.

Akeno closed her eyes and smiled innocently. "Say I have an idea. Why not let me have a turn with Shirou-kun for a bit?" She requested.

"Ridiculous!" Rias then pointed at her. "I will never let him fall into your hands and I'm asking you one more time to back off!"

Akeno then just turned her attention to Shirou, not heeding Rias' warnings. "Hey Shirou-Kun, how far have you gone with Rias?"

"Not all that far really." Shirou answered nonchalant, unfazed by the position he was in. "We've only kissed once or twice."

"Really, well if kissing is no big deal for you, then how about trying it with me?" Akeno suggested with a sedative smile, though instead of waiting for his response the Vice-President of the Occult Research Club just leaned forward and planted her lips on top of Shirou's. During that short passage of time while they were kissing Shirou thought to himself.

 _"Hmm, not bad."_ Shirou thought. _"She's a little too pushy though, should probably work on that."_

BANG!

At that moment something passed by their heads and made them stop kissing, in the back he heard something crackling to pieces. Having a distinct feeling he knew what it was Shirou look back to see, one of the pool's diving boards was now rubble.

Taking a glance at Rias' direction, in the palm of her projected hand is an aura of demonic power. There was no doubt she fired her Power of Destruction and destroyed the diving board.

"Akeno. Aren't you going too overboard?" Rias spoke in a quiet yet angry voice, her eyes glaring in Akeno's direction. "You, aren't you forgetting that you're my Servant?"

"Ara, Ara, if you become like that then I'll be troubled." While smiling Akeno-san closes her eyes, then reopens her eyes. Not to mention her tone is overflowing with anger."—Chief, I won't back down?"

She surrounds her whole body with a golden aura, and sparks are running with crackles around her. Rias lifts her body, Akeno also moves away from Shirou's body and stands. The two Bishoujo Third-Years with their boobs fully exposed while developing magic power in their full bodies are glaring at each other while close to each other. No doubt a major Cat-Fight was about to start.

"I won't give you Shirou." Rias stated firmly while preparing her magic. "—Vulgar Priestess of Thunder-san."

"Isn't it fine to be affectionate?" Akeno didn't back down, and as if challenging her master she followed up by saying. "—Crimson Virgin Princess-sama."

"Aren't you a Virgin yourself!" Rias shot back.

"Ara, if you're going to say that, I'll have Shirou-kun take my Virginity right now." Akeno state, decidedly.

"No! Shirou will be taking my Virginity!" Rias demanded, not allowing argument.

 _"And of course they don't bother asking for consent."_ Shirou thought, become a little pissed off.

KABOOM!

Immediately following that, destructive sounds started reverberating, Rias and Akeno flew towards the sky and started a girl's fight that wouldn't be called the level of a fight. They both kept charging demonic power in their hands and hurled them at each other. Akeno kept dodging the orbs of destruction and Rias kept dodging the spheres of Lightning.

"In the first place Akeno, you hated men! Why of all people did you only take interest in Shirou!" Rias questioned while throwing another attack.

"If you say it like that, even you Rias have no interest in men, you said they all looked the same to you!" Akeno reminded her, dodging and throwing more Lightning.

"Shirou is special! He's unlike any other man in the world!" Rias defended.

"Even for me, Shirou-kun is special!" Akeno agreed. "I finally met a boy of whom I felt like that, so it should be fine to pass Shirou-kun to me for just a bit and let me understand men!"

BOOM!

It turned into a big fight. And without even minding that the others were still there, they kept letting out dangerous masses of demonic power. Demonic power came flying really close to the pool and the poolside got smashed up. They didn't stop there though, their demonic power kept flying in every direction destroying everything it hit, Asia and Koneko had to run for cover. Mika put up a magic barrier around herself while recording everything on her phone. And Kiba just continued swimming laps without a care in the world.

A tick mark appeared on Shirou's head as he had just about enough of this mess and stood up. Gathering demonic power in his own hand, sparks started to crackle around him as well, as he pointed upwards towards a spot in the sky slightly above Rias and Akeno's head. Soon enough a magic circle appeared above them.

 _ **RESOUND THUNDER!**_

FLASH!

From the magic-circle, a human-sized both of Lightning came down and struck the two women fighting in the sky. With the crackling sound and strong force, it resembled the Lightning of a thunder cloud and was currently electrocuting Rias and Akeno. After what felt like seconds the Lightning dispersed and the two of them free-fell from the sky, hitting the poolside floor with a crash.

Fortunately from them, though Devils were a lot tough than humans and had more durable bodies so they weren't hurt from the fall and both stood up almost immediately afterwards.

Rias turned to Shirou both confused and upset by his sudden action. "What was that for?"

"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Shirou narrowing his eyes, answered her question with a question. "I get that you're teenage High school girls and that makes you prone to argue like petty children sometimes, but at the very least think before you go wild like that, just look around!"

As he said that Shirou pointed to the damage and devastation they both caused to the pool area through their fighting. Both Rias and Akeno looked genuinely surprised as if they completely hadn't noticed until just now.

"It's not just damaging to the furniture or property, the real problem is the others." Shirou continued. "With if a stray shot hit Mika, or Asia, or Kiba, or Koneko. Think about where you are before you go around firing magic like that." He scolded them as if he was telling off two misbehaving kids. "And stop getting so emotional."

And with that Shirou turned and walked away from them, heading off in the direction of the changing room to get changed and leave. Having decided that he had stayed long enough. As he left silence had returned and the others didn't say much until Asia stood up and walked towards the two of them.

"Ano… Chief-san." Asia muttered, looking somewhat nervous. "Y-You two are… Um."

"It's fine Asia, we know." Rias stopped her. "We were acting unsightly back there."

"True, we got a little too carried away." Akeno agreed.

"…No Chief, what she's trying to say is…" Koneko paused before telling them. "…You two are Naked."

Upon being told this the two of them looked down and saw for themselves. And just as they were two the 'King' and 'Queen' of the Gremory Peerage were standing there without a stitch or string remaining to hide any form of modesty they had left. Shirou's Lightning spell had not only damaged them but also vaporized the bottoms of their swimsuits and since they themselves removed their tops, that left them with nothing.

Now everything was silent and all that could be heard was the sound of the winds blowing as an awkward atmosphere filled the air around the pool.

Kiba resurfaced from beneath the pool and asked. "What did I miss?"

Mika finished recording, out her phone down and grinned. "Best. Pool episode. Ever."

* * *

Shirou was now walking down the hallway of the pool area heading to the locker room with his hands in his pockets.

"Man, why did I even come here." Shirou grumbled to himself before sighing. "I guess I can always do some training, I'll get changed and go."

"Are you leaving?"

Shirou looked up when he heard a familiar voice and saw that standing in front of him was Xenovia. She was wearing an… Interesting swimsuit. It was a two-piece blueish-green swimsuit that really showed off her curves, the whole suit was nothing more than three squares of fabric that were held together by small yellow strings, two squares on the top, each covering the center of her breasts and one on the bottom covering her crotch. I was almost as revealing as something Rias would wear and yet, someone it just seemed to suit Xenovia.

"Xenovia?" Shirou noticed.

"It sounded pretty noisy out there and then it suddenly became quiet, did something happen?" Xenovia asked, curious.

"Just forget it, it's nothing important." Shirou brushed it off. "That aside, why are just now heading to the pool? It's been a while since we got here."

"It's my first time putting on a swimsuit so it took a while to put on." Xenovia said, looking down at herself. "Does it suit me?"

"First of all, I'm not even sure where you even got that thing or why you thought it was a good idea to wear." Shirou answered uncaringly. "Secondly, there's no way putting on something that simple could have taken you this long even if it's your first time wearing it."

"You're right, and I did figure it out a while ago." Xenovia confessed. "The truth is I've been doing some thinking and now, there's something I want to talk about."

 _"Why I get the feeling I should just leave right now?"_ Shirou raised a brow. "I'm probably going to regret asking but; what is it?"

"I would like you, Shirou Tsukiharu to make a baby with me." Xenovia declared, completely serious.

.

.

.

After saying that Shirou and Xenovia both just stood there staring at each other for a bit until Shirou decided to just not responded and turned to walk away. But before he could take the first step Xenovia grabbed his arm and quickly dragged him to the nearby storage closet, opened the door and led him inside, closing the door behind her and locking it.

"You never gave me an answer." She said leading him through the storage. "I want to make a baby with you."

Shirou pinched the bridge of his nose and just looked at her. "…And why, dare I ask do you want that?"

"I was born and brought up in the Headquarters of the Church, Rome, so that the element to be able to wield Holy Swords would be born, from childhood, for God, for religion, I endeavoured in my training and studies." Is what she said. "From childhood, while saying that, dreams and objectives, everything was entwined with God and faith. For example, defeating Devils was for the sake of the Lord, and the one propagating that, the Vatican, while believing that, I've never doubted it. That's why, after becoming a Devil now, you can say that my dreams and objectives have disappeared."

Shirou just narrowed his eyes. "Okay, great story but how does that lead into this?"

"Yeah, while serving God, I had thrown away the part of me, a women's happiness." Xenovia continued. "My body, my heart, I sealed everything for the sake of faith. However, like this, I am currently a Devil. What should I do, initially I didn't understand. After asking my present master, Chief Rias—"

 _(Devils have desires, grant desires, give desires and hope for desires without obligation. We get to live the life we want.)_

"—Is what she said."

 _"That idiot!"_ Shirou resisted the urge to say that out loud. _"What was she thinking telling something like that to someone like this!?"_

"That's why, I felt free to release, what was sealed inside me, and become skilful in that." Xenovia's expression became a determined one. "And then, my new objective, my dream is—to bear children."

"Don't you think that's a huge leap of faith you're taking." Shirou tried to reason with her. "Do you even know what you're saying?"

Xenovia nods. "Yes. I want to bear children. For that purpose, you need a man as well, but it's great, right? Children and at the same time we can get to know each other better."

"Yeah, No." Shirou flat out refused. "There are ways people can get to know each other better, but babymaking isn't one of them."

"Are you dissatisfied? Even if I am like this, I have a bit of confidence in my body as a woman. My breasts won't be as big Chief Rias' but they're bigger than Asia's? I think they're worth seeing, are they not?" She says that while stroking her breast.

Shirou was starting to feel like he was talking to a brick wall and so decided to be a bit more direct. "Alright let me say this clearly. There are plenty of reasons why I'm not doing this but for an example; we barely know each other. I don't know what kind of person you think would just agree to bare children with someone they've known for less than a week but I'm not that person. Plus you don't even like me intimately."

Xenovia shook her head, not believing his argument. "Shirou is fine. I'm sure you already realized it yourself, but you have the aura of a Dragon on your body, probably because you're carrying the Sekiryuutei. I've felt it ever since we met for the first time, it's not hard to see, but your Dragon spirit is increasing."

"Your point?" Shirou questioned.

"More than making children, I want them to become strong kids. A special power in the father's genes, or otherwise I want greater strength. And that's where I think that Shirou is the most suited one. Not only do you possess the power of the legendary Red Dragon Emperor, but you're also a Hero's descendant of Shirōu Amakusa. Even if the kids don't inherit the Sacred Gear, maybe the kids will inherit the Dragon aura? And with the Amakusa bloodline, they're be guaranteed to become prodigies in whichever field they choose to pursue. This is a good chance. Definitely, this is the Lord's guidance—" Xenovia tried to pray and received pain. "Uh! ….I unintentionally prayed and received damage, but that's how it is. And there's perfectly no presence of humans here. Let's try it out once right now. If anything, the faster the better."

Suddenly without any hesitation at all Xenovia starts removing her swimsuit in front of Shirou starting with her top.

"I know about the birth of Devils as well. It seems it's quite difficult to make kids. Especially both being pure-blooded, it's difficult but luckily both you and I are reincarnated Devils." Xenovia said, letting her top fall to the fall. "The base is human, and your sexual desire is higher than mine as well. I expect if we do it every day, then within 10 years, I should be able to conceive. No, if it's your strong durability, then within a day, a number of times should be possible? If you include that, then I think it's possible within 5 years. Aah, there's no problem from the side of the children as well. Basically I will raise them. However, if the children desire love from their father, then only at those times do I want you to play with them. After all, for the children, both father and mother are required." She finished while letting her bottoms hit the floor and stepping out of them.

"So that's how it is." Shirou whispered, just standing there.

"Unfortunately I don't have any experience with men. I plan on memorizing it from now on, but for now I'll learn with Shirou who seems to be abundant with knowledge about sex." Xenovia clung to him. "—Hold me. If you do the procedure for making kids properly I don't mind you doing it as you like."

CRASH!

As she finished taking Shirou pushed forward his palm and struck her in the chest, knocking her off of him and making her crash into a shelf, which made her fall onto the floor. After that, she just sat there and looked at him.

"Why did you do that?" Xenovia asked, more confused than anything else.

"Because everything you said gave me all the reason I needed." Shirou answered.

"What?" Xenovia didn't seem to get it.

"You said you wanted my genes, but do you seriously think I'd have children with someone just for that?" Shirou asked as if he was insulted. "Sex is one thing, but kids are completely different, I'm not a breeding horse, the only time I'll have children is when I'm with a woman I genuinely want to start a family with. And another thing, any children I have are _my_ children, and so I'll raise them however _I_ see fit, for as long as I can. I'm not going to just leave them with a woman who says she'll decide when and for how long I'll spend time with them, because that's bullshit."

Xenovia slowly stood up. "So what your saying is, you won't have children with me because you don't love me."

"No, I'm saying I won't have children with you because I'm not in love with you." Shirou corrected. "There's a difference you know?"

"I see… Well, then it can't be helped." Xenovia said looking down, before looking straight at him. "Then my new goal will be making you love me."

"…Huh?"

Shirou honestly didn't know how to responded to that. And what's worse, Xenovia wasn't done.

"The requirement I need to have your children is to be loved by you as well, then I have no choice." Xenovia reasoned. "Plus if I do that and succeed then not only will we have kids but we'll also be a loving couple which is good for raising children, it's win-win."

Shirou face-palmed. "Would you listen to yourself. Or better yet, listen to me."

"You're right that could take a while, so for now let's practice." Xenovia suggested, approaching him again. "I still need more experience so I need you to show me."

"So, in the end, we're back to having sex?" Shirou asked incredulously.

"That's right if we're going to be doing this I need to be prepared." Xenovia was now standing right in front of him. "You can do whatever you want, just tell me exactly what I need to do."

Shirou groaned and saw he had no choice. "You'll really do exactly what I tell you?"

"Yes, just say the word." Xenovia confirmed.

"Fine then, first close your eyes and hold still." Shirou ordered.

Xenovia obeyed and stayed motionless with her eyes. Shirou then cocked back his fist and slammed a strong punch right on her stomach while her guard was completely down. Without even knowing what hit her, she coughed as all the air was knocked out of her and she slowly fell forward, hitting the floor unconscious. Not giving her a second glance, Shirou left the Nude girl in the storage closet and walked out the door.

Now back in the hallway, he was about to turn and leave. "Seriously, am I the only one in this entire damn town that knows what CONSENT means?"

"Shirou-san." Asia spoke, appearing behind him.

"Hmm, Asia?" Shirou noted, turning to see her. "What are you doing out here?"

"Um, why are you here?" Asia returned the question. "I thought you left."

Shirou shrugged. "I was going to but I needed to deal with something first. And you?"

"Oh, I was just looking for Xenovia-san." Asia answered. "She still hasn't arrived at the pool and I'm starting to get worried. You haven't seen her have you?"

"…Nope haven't seen her." Shirou lied before walking away.

Leaving for real this time.

* * *

An hour later Shirou was now in his casual clothes and walking down the street in the middle of town. After having just finished more hard training he was trying to figure out how to spend the rest of the day.

 _"My moves are more controlled, but I still need to work on my finesse."_ Shirou thought while walking. _"Unless I can fight with my Balance Breaker the same way I do without it, I can't say I've completely mastered it yet."_

Shirou was taken out of his thoughts when suddenly a metal pole was thrown at him, aiming for his head. He easily dodged it but looked in the direction where it came from. To his right was a large alleyway where a number of thugs, roughly 18 of them were standing there each holding different kinds of weapons and all looking like they wanted to kill him.

"We figured you be here, this is your usual route isn't it?" The thug, presumed to be the leader spoke, taking out a switchblade. "Don't bother trying to run, this time we'll kill you."

Shirou just looked at them expressionless until he smirked and clenched his fists. _"Oh man, I needed this."_

The thugs saw his expression and became angry. "Quit trying to act tough!"

"Let me ask you something." Shirou pointed to the leader. "Which do you like more, your arms or legs?"

The leader just looked confused by that random question. "Huh, probably the legs?"

"Interesting, then if someone were to broke both your arms, it wouldn't be as bad as breaking both your legs, right?" Shirou asked, still smirking as he starting approaching them.

"What the Hell are you talking about?!" The leader raised his switchblade, getting pissed.

Instead of answering, Shirou just rushed in like a wild beast pouncing at a flock of prey and started to attack. At that moment the sounds of fighting, crushing metal, breaking bones and screaming of agony could be heard coming from the alleyway. Just another day in the life of Shirou.

* * *

 **And that's the chapter and as I said this chapter was mostly about dialogue, the talk with Sirzechs was something I wanted to add so we'd get more about the lore of the Underworld, the Devil Kings, the current government and the Old Satan Faction, as well as other things. The reason I added all that was because I fell that its important information that someone involved in all this should know about. Yet in the canon, we don't learn about a lot of important stuff until a lot later even though they could have had a lot sooner if they just asked someone, which I believed was stupid. So I had Shirou learn about these important details from Sirzechs.**

 **Plus this will be the start to him finding a new goal, but you'll hear about that later. On another note, I wanted to write down Sirzechs and Grayfia's reactions to trying Shirou's cooking for the first time, and it was a lot like when the club first tried it. I never get tired of doing that.**

 **And when it came to the part about the pool; first of all yes Shirou still isn't comfortable about has bandages, that's just something that'll stick for a while and when it came time to spending time with the others at the pool, I basically just did the events on how I believe Shirou would deal with them, like Rias and Akeno fighting, Kiba's declaration and Xenovia wanting to have his kids. Unlike Issei or a lot of other OC MC's or get intimidated and try to run, he just dealt with them quickly and left after he had basically ended it himself. After all, Shirou always wants to be the dominate one in any situation.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review, if you like the story than click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	26. Open House And Red Vs White

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This chapter Will be one that covers a lot of different content, though mostly it'll have stuff that I added as original source material for this Fanfic. There'll also be some stuff from the canon but that is a given. I actually wanted to make this chapter long but with all the new stuff I added it would run too long and I wanted to get this out before Christmas arrived. Think of it as my gift to you. Hope you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 ** _DRAGON SHOT_** Attack names.

( _Shirou_ ) Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Open House And Red Vs White**

* * *

Shirou stood motionless, his eyes closed as he remained in a state of complete stasis. The area surrounding him was completely filled with smoke, the scenery burning away like a photograph thrown into a fireplace. Fireplace… That seemed to be a fairly apt description for the void Shirou found himself in. The flames seemed to originate below Shirou's feet, something like seven meteors from his heels and the fire's tongue seemed to stretch endlessly into the air above him. It was a world akin to a Fire Dragon's den. Which was fitting considering he was in the inner world of his mind.

Or more specifically, the inner world that existed within the Boosted Gear.

 **[You seem to be deep in thought, Partner.]**

He still didn't react, not to the voice nor the inhuman silhouette that appeared towering over him.

The flames receded slightly, revealing more details regarding the creature's appearance. It had big eyes. The colour of its eyes is red, like blood. A jaw that comes up to its ears, with lots of sharp fangs growing out of it. There is a thick horn lining up, on its forehead, and the scales that cover its body is red like magma. It had thick arms and legs like those of a gigantic tree. The claws looked very sharp and terrifying. More than that, its pair of wings that are spread out make this giant monster look even bigger.

It was the Dragon who's spirit was sealed within the Boosted Gear, the Heavenly Dragon; the Welsh Dragon, Y Ddraig Goch, or simply the Red Dragon. Partner to the Red Dragon Emperor, who was currently Shirou.

 **[It's been almost a full hour and yet you've remained motionless this entire time. Is there a reason for that?]**

"I'm training Ddraig." Shirou responded, finally moving.

 **[Hmm, and exactly what type of training requires you to remain in a state of emptiness? I'd of thought you would be more concerned in training your Balance Breaker.]**

"It should be obvious." Shirou responded. "These past few days I've been training my Balance Breaker, I've already got down the basics through both abilities training and combat training. Now I can't improve it anymore without actually fighting someone." He explained. "And since no one in town is strong enough to fight the current me, I can't do that, so now I'm training something else."

 **[Something else? What might that be?]**

"My mental strength." Shirou answered.

 **[And why do you see the need for that?]**

"Think for a second would you." Shirou told him, irritated. "My Sacred Gear isn't my only power, I need to train with all my strengths, otherwise I'll just be a one-trick pony. Since I'm not training my Gear, I'm working on Senjutsu."

 **[You have been spending a great deal of time with your Youkai comrade now that I think about it.]**

"Ren told me that controlling Senjutsu is like a test of endurance on your mind. If your mind is too weak it'll be overwhelmed by the malice intent." Shirou explained. "So I'm training my mind to be as durable as a steel trap."

 **[I assumed your mental fortitude was already capable of not being overwhelmed, you showed proof of that while being overshadowed during the battle against Kokabiel.]**

"And I'm supposed to just hope the same principles apply to Senjutsu?" Shirou asked, sarcastically. "Even if that was the case, if I use that as an excuse to not train I'll just get rusty."

 **[Personally I see no problem with you wanting to acquire as much power that is presented to you. Especially considering the Vanishing Dragon has already appeared before you. You'll need to be at your Strongest if you wish to defeat him.]**

"Hmm." Shirou stretched his neck out a bit. "Hey Ddraig, I've had something on my mind for a while now and have been waiting for a good time to ask. And I think now's the time." He looked up at Ddraig. "What's the story with you and Albion?"

 **[…I suppose I should have expected you to ask that before long. Where do I begin? Well, let me start from the beginning. It started during the Great War between the Three Factions.]**

"That far back?" Shirou asked, surprised.

 **[Yes. When the Three Great powers of God and his Angels, the Fallen Angels who rebelled against them and the Devils who, led by their Kings sought to destroy both were all locked in war. That time other powers gave their support to certain sides. Fairies, Spirits, European Monsters, Asian Youkai and Humans. But the Dragons were the only beings that didn't side with any of them.]**

"That's a bit odd." Shirou commented. "And here I thought Dragons lived to fight. Why would they remain passive?"

 **[Hmmm, I wonder. I don't know the actual reason. But Dragons are beings that are made from a mass of powers and they all act freely and selfishly. There were Dragons that turned into Devils and became Demonic Dragons or those that sided with God and became Holy Dragons. But the majority of them didn't care about the war and lived freely.]**

"I guess that's far." Shirou shrugged. "Realistically, why would anyone join a war that had nothing to do with them if they didn't have to."

 **[That didn't mean Dragon weren't consistently fighting though. During the Great War between the Three Powers, there were two foolish Dragons that started a fight. And those two were in the highest class of Dragons and they had a power that rivalled that of God and outclassed that of a Maou. They started to fight each other while taking down the beings of the Three Powers. For the Three Powers, there wasn't anything more troublesome than these two Dragons. The Three Powers were having a serious war to take control of this World, and the two Dragons were disturbing the battlefield without any care.]**

"What wait? Didn't they literally turn the _whole world_ into a battlefield?" Shirou pointed out. "Why didn't the Trinity Factions just fight around them?"

 **[A fight between Dragons of that calibre engulfed everything. While fighting they were constantly moving. The Human-World, the Underworld, Mount Olympus, along with Valhalla, even the Underworld ruled by Hades. It was impossible to ignore them because they were destroying everything.]**

"Impressive, but I see the problem, though the elephant in the room is; why were they fighting in the first place?" Shirou question.

 **[No idea. It's like they weren't interested in anything at all. The two Dragons probably can't remember the reason why they started to fight.]**

"They don't rem…" Shirou started before he paused to think. "I get it. In the end, it doesn't matter why you start a fight, you just need to make sure you end it, reasons can come later. It's not logic but rather, instinct."

 **[Haha, that does sound like something a Dragon would say. But the leaders of the Three Powers weren't going to let things continue like that. And for the first time, the leaders of the Three Powers joined hands. "We have to get rid of those two Dragons, or else it's not a matter of war any more!" Like that.]**

"Those people actually came together for something?" Shirou asked as if he was told something outrageous. "I guess anyone can be reasonable when their back's up against the wall."

 **[Unfortunately for them things only became worse. The two Dragons that got their fight interrupted became enraged. "Don't get in the way of our fight!", "A mere God and Satan shouldn't be interrupting a duel between Dragons!"— they responded like fools. They went head-on and tried to eat God, Maou, and the leaders of the Fallen-Angels. Well, that was a mistake, I guess.]**

"Maybe, but I have to admit." Shirou then had an interested smirk. "Fighting all the Trinity Faction leaders at once, that actually sounds exciting."

 **[If you were born in that Era, I'd imagine you'd also be a troubling existence.]**

Shirou shrugged, not bothered by those words. "I am what I am."

 **[The story doesn't end there though. In the end, the two Dragons got cut into pieces and their spirits were sealed within Human bodies as Sacred Gears. The two Dragons that were sealed within Humans used them as vessels, they encountered each other and fought each other countless times. Every time one of them won and one of them died. Sometimes one of them was already dead before the other one came and so they didn't fight, but most of the times they did. If the vessel, Human, dies then the Dragons stop functioning for a certain time. Their spirits float around in this World until the Humans with Dragon powers are born. That cycle has repeated countless times for many long years.]**

"And since both vessels met the cycle continues again." Shirou noted. "I usually don't like moving to the flow of someone else's tune, but since it means I can fight someone like that, I'll go along with it this time."

 **[That's for the best. This time it was you who became my host. And you even became a Devil. In all the long years I have been like this, this is the first time. That's why I am looking forward to it. I wonder what's going to happen this time? Even if past wielders tried to avoid fighting, they always found themselves fighting in the end. It's one of those things that just naturally happens.]**

"Wait, I'm seriously the only one who's a Devil?" Shirou raised a brow.

 **[This all started before the Evil Piece system was created and even then, most wielders usually kept to themselves.]**

"And what were they like?" Shirou asked.

 **[They came in all shapes and sizes. Some young, some old, some children, some elders, some male, some female. There were some that stood out among the rest though. There was a wielder who was a Warrior from Greece, another who was a Knight of the Round Table from Camelot, even one who stood as a Warrior during the Romance of Three Kingdoms Era in China.]**

"Well damn, and how to I measure up in all this?" Shirou asked curiously.

 **[You aren't weak if that's what you're asking. In fact among the previous wielders, the most talented one of them was around your age. But if I compared you two I'd say you're more gifted considering you awakened the Balance Breaker first. Not mention he got drunk off his power and was carelessly killed by another Longinus-user.]**

"So he didn't fight the Vanishing Dragon?"

 **[He lost his life before they met. That's why I believe your potential is greater. Your power grows at a similar rate and yet you don't recklessly lose your sense of self. That's a standard I've grown accustomed to.]**

"So you're saying I'm the most talented Red Dragon Emperor?" Shirou questioned.

 **[Corrected, you might be the most talented Red Dragon Emperor thus far. However, you are not yet the Strongest wielder.]**

Shirou looked displeased by those words. "Okay then, so who is?"

 **[A man named Belzard. Without question, he was the most powerful Red Dragon Emperor to ever possess my Sacred Gear.]**

"Belzard?" Shirou repeated, trying to remember that name. "You mentioned him before, that first time we spoke to each other."

 **[That's right. I felt at the time that your bravado remembered of Belzard in his youth. And in fact, you two share many similarities. Though Belzard was a man who's power was unlike any other. He was acknowledged as the Strongest wielder by accomplishing what none else had done before or since, defeating the White Dragon Emperor twice.]**

"You're saying him met the Vanishing Dragon of the same Era as him, fought him and won. Then lived long enough to meet the next one and beat them to?" Shirou asked for confirmation.

 **[Yes, that's right.]**

"You realize that unlike him, I'm a Devil, in other words, my life could potentially last forever, which means I could also do what did and so much more." Shirou pointed out. "Plus even then, as a Devil with an almost endless life span, I have all the time in the world to surpass him and all the rest."

 **[You forget, you might not die naturally but you can still be killed.]**

"Yeah, but we both know that's never happening." Shirou brushed off.

 **[Regardless, even though you met him back then, you didn't fight the White Dragon Emperor. While there were certain circumstances at the time, it's very likely the next time you see him you'll end up fighting him. As such, you had best prepare yourself for it.]**

* * *

Shirou opened his eyes and looked around. He was now back in the real world outside his Gear.

He let out a sigh. "Yeah, I knew that much already."

Shirou was referring to the last words Ddraig said at the end of their conversation. Right now it was several days after the Gremory Peerage came together at the School pool and Shirou was standing atop the roof of a random building in town. A gentle summer breeze blew by and blew back his hair as he stood up and looked out at the view of the town he could oversee from this height.

Stretching out his arms, Shirou breathed out. "Well, I guess now's as good a time as any."

Upon those words, Shirou stood up straight, closed his eyes and started to gather up his Ki. Letting the natural energy surround his body. It was different from Touki as it wasn't his own life energy, but rather an energy from nature itself.

 _"Ren said to start with the basics."_ Shirou thought, concentrating. _"For now, I'll just focus on sensing other people."_

Shirou could feel it, he could feel the aura of many different sources of life around him. It was different from sensing power with his eyes. He wasn't sensing how strong someone was, but instead their life-force.

Even though his eyes were closed he felt like he could still see clearly. It was like having a radar-like vision, he knew how many people were within his range, how far away they were and in which direction. Every person simply looked like walking silhouettes, with small blue flames that were as big as a candle-lit fire inside them. Though that just meant they were normal, everyday Humans.

 _"Huh, this is a lot different from how I pictured it."_ Shirou thought, somewhat impressed. _"Now to see what Devils feel like."_

Shirou then turned to the direction of his house knowing Mika was there. He could feel it, he someone could tell the difference from her aura and others, probably because he knew her. Mika's aura was much bigger than a Humans', rather than a candle flame, her's was the size of a campfire and the colour of her flame was also blue, but in the center there was some purple, Shirou figured that was the Demonic aura. There was another big aura near Mika's, though not as big. He could tell it was Asia.

"Looks like my maximum radius is only a few miles." Shirou noted. "Well, that's good enough for now, I guess."

Shirou then opened his eyes and dissipated his Ki. Believing that was enough. He looked around in different directions as if trying to decide what he should do now. At some point he found himself looking at the direction of the School; Kuoh Academy.

"The School? It's not a School day, but I'm pretty sure Sona and the council are there doing some work." Shirou said to himself. "Course, now that I think about it, she could be making preparing with the staff about the open house, which is pretty soon." He then turned away. "Anyway, maybe I'll just find Saito and knock him around for a bit?"

CHILLS!

Suddenly Shirou felt a chill go through his entire body, but it hit him mostly in his left arm. It was enough to make him gasp, quickly turning back Shirou saw that whatever this was, it was coming from the same direction as to where he was looking a moment ago. He could feel it clearly, even with his eyes wide open. It was power, pure power that was eclipsing everything nearby. It was like a bonfire that was spread both wide and thick. Shirou felt something like this before, on the day he first felt Grayfia's Demonic-power in the club room, but even then it wasn't this big. This power was closer to Sirzechs.

Then suddenly, it hit him. Shirou remembered feeling this chill over his arm once before. In fact, fairly recently.

"Ddraig." Shirou spoke, emotionless. "Could that be who I think it is?"

 **[Without a doubt, Partner. I could never mistake that aura.]**

Shirou narrowed his eyes and stared dagger in that direction while wearing an almost scary-looking smirk on his face.

"Well. If this is fate, I'll gladly accept it."

Upon saying those words, Shirou jumped forward and lumped from building to building, heading to wear this power was coming from.

* * *

In the span of a few seconds, Shirou arrived at where he felt that chill; Kuoh Academy. Specifically right outside the School grounds. While standing on the small bridge that led to the school gate a glint of silver came into his eyes. The person he came to find was standing in front of him, leaning back by the wall.

An amazing Bishounen was looking up at the School building. Silver-haired. A bit like Grayfia's, but her Silver-haired was different from the boy standing before him. His was denser, more like, its dark colour was stronger. In fact, it was almost identical to Shirou's hair.

He's a foreigner, so you can't estimate his age by looking at him but he and Shirou were probably around the same age. Looking clearly at him, he was a handsome young man. He is wearing a dark green V-neck shirt with a high collared black leather jacket over it. He also wore burgundy jeans with a sliver chain drooping down over them and black leather chaps with three bands encircling his right calf, and finally black shoes with black buckles.

One thing that stood out was the look on his face. He had a smirk that gave off the air of being both confident and comfortable like it was a perfectly natural expression for him, it was something many others saw when looking at Shirou. Just that he's looking up at the school building, just that act was visible like an illusion. Soon this person noticed Shirou's presence, his eyes are looking towards him. Those blue eyes were as blue as the azure sky, so transparent that one would be drawn in by looking into them. With a smile like an Angel in that in felt like it could both charm and mesmerize a person. The two of them just stared at each other, not taking.

"….…."

"….…."

WHOOSH!

A strong gust of wind blew by as they continued to just stare at each other for what seemed like a long time, not even taking a step forward they remained in the same spots as when they first spotted each other like they were waiting for a sign or a signal or something. From an outsiders perspective, it was like they were frozen. It was almost like a scene from a movie.

After a few minutes but what felt like hours, they finally spoke.

"Hey, it's a good School."

"Hmm….. Guess it depends on your taste."

"I am Vali. The Hakuryuukou— Vanishing Dragon." The now named Vali introduced himself casually.

"And I am Shirou Tsukiharu." Shirou followed suit, also casual. "The Sekiryuutei— Welsh Dragon."

"This is the second time we meet here, huh, Welsh Dragon— Sekiryuutei. Shirou Tsukiharu." Vali noted.

"I know, I knew you were here because I remembered your presence from the first time I saw you, Vanishing Dragon— Hakuryuukou. Vali." Shirou informed him.

Small talk. That was you could describe their words. Their conversation was like two acquaintances chatting after meeting after a while. But their expression were that of two predators preparing themselves to strike. Vali decided to slowly approach him, still wearing his cold smile.

"I'm sure I don't need to explain why I'm here." Vali told him.

"I'm sure I don't need to explain why I came to where I knew I'd find you." Shirou said back.

"There can be only one answer. It's the destiny of both the Red and White Dragons to fight after they have met." Vali added.

"And this time around it's our turn." Shirou added.

"So it would seem." Vali finished, stopping once he was right in front of him.

At the moment when Vali stopped, he reached out his hand. "You're more vulnerable than I expected, that could cost you your life you know?" His hand was closing in and stopped as he pointed out towards Shirou's forehead, stopping only after it was less than an inch away from contact. "That's right. For example, if I begin to do something magical to you here—"

Shirou interrupted. "You might want to look first before you finish." He advised him with a confident grin, pointing downwards.

Vali feeling curious did so and saw that right on the ground where they were both standing was a red magic-circle. Shirou was at the edge and Vali was in the center.

"A landmine spell?" Vali realized, sounding amused. "When did you set that?"

"I made it while you were taking your sweet time walking up to me." Shirou told him like he was telling a joke. "Well, weren't you going to do something _magical_ to me?"

"Do you really think an explosive can stop me?" Vali asked, rhetorical.

"Let's found out." Shirou snapped his fingers.

SNAP!

BOOOOOOM!

The instant the landmine detonated, a barrier covered the entire school area, the sky and scenery turned red and a large explosion engulfed them. Through the blast, both Dragon Emperors jumped out barely effected and distanced themselves from each other by a few feet.

 **[Be careful. Partner. Your opponent's Sacred Gear can half the power of his enemies and add it to himself.]**

Shirou looked intrigued by that bit of information.

Not missing a beat, Vali dashes forward with a speed that outclassed Kiba and swung his fist at Shirou. Because his speed was so sudden, Shirou was late in reacting, so acting on instinct alone he leaned back and swayed his head away from the hit.

Not wanting to be on the defensive Shirou returned the favour by throwing a punch himself. Vali dodged by using his speed to vanished from sight and appeared behind Shirou. But expecting something like that, without turning around Shirou jumped in place and kicked his leg out in the opposite direction he was facing. Vali crossed his arms and blocked the hit, though it knocked him back a few steps.

Shirou turned around and at the same time he and Vali charged forward, it was a fight to land the first blow, whoever did would gain control of the fight. They both fired out barrages of punches, aiming for the face, head, body, chest, sides and anything else within reach. Whether by ducking, leaning, turning, or just moving slightly to the left or right, they both kept evading each other's hits using speed and reflexes. It became a stalemate where they could only hit air.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Wanting to try something, Shirou watched Vali's attacks trying to memorize the timing of his punches. Then after a minute of this stalemate he saw his chance, Vali threw a punch aimed at Shirou head and Shirou brought up his right fist to swap Vali's hand away. Seeing Vali was now off balance and the surprised look on his face, Shirou knew this was his chance and threw out his left fist, focusing more on speed than power this time.

However. Vali knowing he couldn't evade this one jumped back to gain distance and landed on the same spot he was on when this all started. Appearing on his cheek was a small wound that came from Shirou's fist gazing him. Vali used his thumb to wipe it off and it was cleared.

Shirou stood up straight and looked dissatisfied that his attack didn't connect.

 _"Sharp."_ Vali thought. _"He baited me into attacking just so he could counterattack." He then looked interested. "Seems I can't take him lightly."_

"So if he can steal half his enemies power, then his Gear mirrors mine. If he could siphon off power whenever he wanted he'd be a force of nature, but naturally a power like that typically needs a lock-on effect so he can target what he steals power from." Shirou deduced, smug. "I'm guessing he can't steal my power without first hitting or even just touching me once."

 _"Correct."_ Vali thought, impressed. _"Looks like his fists are the only things that are sharp."_

"This effect probably only works if he hits me, but not when I hit him. The fact that he kept trying to dodge my attacks, especially that last one is proof of that." Shirou continued. "That would also explain why he hasn't used his power yet and why he's been on the offensive this whole time."

 _"Correct again."_ Vali thought, before holding out his arms. _"No choice then."_

Vali started to gather magic into his arms and then appearing in the palms of both his hands were two large white orbs of magic.

 _"It could be dangerous to go into close range since it might give him a chance to steal my power."_ Shirou thought. _"It'd be smart to keep my distance until I see an opening."_ Then he smirked and gather Demonic power himself. _"But. I wouldn't be Shirou-Sama if I wasn't relentlessly attacking."_

With that Shirou held out his arms and created two red orbs of magic, around the same size as Vali's.

At the same time, they both fired.

 **Play OST - One Punch Man Season 2 - I'm A Monster**

BAAAANNNGGGG!

The first clash was the kick-off for the start of a shot out. Both of them continued to create magic bullets and kept firing them with the speed of rapid-fire machine-guns and the power of grenade launchers. Every magic bullet they fired hit an enemy bullet and exploded on impact, creating a wall of explosions and pure destruction in the center and shockwaves around them.

Soon the wall of explosions became thick enough that they couldn't see each other through it. Suddenly, faster than the eye could see, Vali appeared once again right in front of Shirou. Shirou stopped shooting and threw a punch, but Vali vanished again. Shirou was about to turn around believing Vali was doing the same trick as before. But as he was turning, halfway to through he felt a strong impact hit him in the chin and knocked him upwards.

Looking he saw Vali on the ground in front of him, with his leg kicked out and a smug look on his face. Turns out Vali actually didn't turn behind him but was underneath him, he used Shirou's own instinct to time a sneak attack.

Shirou landed in his feet and glared at Vali. "You Bastard."

Vali had a satisfied expression and out of a nowhere a bright white light started to shine from his back. Sprouting from his back was a pair of white Dragon wings with eight blue energy feathers that were giving of sparkling light from them, the eight energy feathers were split between the two wings. These were the same wings he had while wearing his armor, only smaller.

"This is my Sacred Gear, Divine Dividing!" Vali proclaimed, proudly. "Let me show you its power!"

 **[DIVIDE!]**

Upon his command, the energy feathers from Vali's wings lit up and Shirou's power was cut in half. It all hit him at once and Shirou felt like a pile of led was dropped on his shoulders by how heavy his body suddenly felt. Though he knew how to fix it and quickly summoned his Boosted Gear.

 **[BOOST!]**

With that Shirou felt normal again.

 _"Tch, even if I can fix my power by Boosting, his power will keep going up whenever he Divides, meaning the longer this drags out the stronger he'll be."_ Shirou realized, after powering up. _"Only one choice then, offence is the best defence!"_

Shirou rushed in and tried to begin his next assault. But with his wings, Vali flew upwards and at blindingly fast speed and appeared in the air. Vali continued by diving in like a hawk closing in on its prey and prepared to strike, Shirou saw him coming in a straight line and tried to counter, but while diving in Vali with the swiftness and agility of a swallow, Vali changed his flight direction and struck Shirou's right side. Knocking him away again.

"The wings of Divine Dividing let me move at the speed of light." Vali proclaimed, looking down on his opponent. "And if you were hoping that means I can only fly in a straight path than you're deluding yourself. I can change my flight path and direction even at top speed."

 **[DIVIDE!]**

 **[BOOST!]**

"Time to end this!" Vali declared.

Using his light speed Vali closed the distance in the blink of an eye. Using his right fist Vali aimed a strong right cross at Shirou. Not trying to dodge Shirou threw a straight left at Vali.

CLASH!

Their fists crashed into each other, almost mirroring the clash they had when they first meet after the battle against Kokabiel. The clash of force created a shockwave that shattered the ground beneath them. Shirou saw this as an opportunity and opened up his fist, he then reached out and grabbed Vali by the wrist with a grip as strong as steel to stop him from escaping.

Not wasting a split second Shirou made Dyrnwyn appear in his right hand, already out of its sheath, Shirou thrust the blade forward intending to pierce Vali's skull. Vali twisted his body while in midair and narrowly avoided the blade. Using the twisting motion to build up power, he kicked out a roundhouse kick on Shirou's right side. Shirou was forced to let go of Vali's wrist and used his right arm to block the kick.

 **[DIVIDE!]**

 **[BOOST!]**

Sensing his power was now high enough to adequately place a gap between his strength and Shirou's, Vali went in for the kill. Since Shirou was thrown back from the roundhouse kill Vali reached out and grabbed Shirou by the neck, he then went on the knock Shirou to the ground and held him down, still holding his neck with his grip.

 _"Dyrnwyn. The Sword that only the Welsh Dragon can wield. And he didn't hesitate in attempting to kill me back there."_ Vali thought amused. _"When then, I suppose I should return the favour."_

Vali held up his free arm and gathered magic power into it. Planning to fire another Magic Bullet, point-blank at Shirou's head intending for it to kill him. Shirou knew the odds of him surviving this situation was low but he couldn't break free of Vali's grip, not after Vali was stronger from all the power he stole from him. Then a plan came to mind and just before Vali could free his attack, Shirou placed a hand on the ground and fired a burst of magic on the ground.

BOOOOOOOOMM!

Shirou's attack made the ground underneath him and the ground Vali was standing on exploded into rubble. The force of the explosion was enough to blow Vali away and made him release his grip on Shirou's neck. The blast created a cloud of smoke that covered a few feet. Vali looked around while outside the smoke cloud, unfortunately, the second the cloud was formed, Shirou burst out from the cloud-like a lion pouncing out of the long grass to strike at its prey. In Shirou's had was Dyrnwyn with the blade already ignited and he brought it down on Vali.

Vali reacted in time to counter and used the magic he gathered from the Magic Bullet he didn't fire to create a large orb of magic. The two attacks clashed.

CLAAAAAAASSSSSHHHHH!

The result was an overwhelming power struggle, the power of the Dyrnwyn was clashing with the magic power from that Vali gathered in the palm of his hand. The clash of power was Shirou trying to use the power of his Holy Sword to push through the orb of magic before Vali could discharge it and cut through it to slash Vali, while Vali was trying to his magic to overwhelm Shirou and blow away his flaming blade to blast into him. Neither of them believed these haphazard attacks would kill their opponent, but if hit without being able to defend they would take enough damage to leave themselves vulnerable, that would give them a chance to go for the kill. Their struggle of power was causing damage to the scenery around them, shockwaves were being disbursed, there was a strong wind blowing in every direction attempting to blow everything away, sparks of power similar to lightning was shooting out from their clash and the clash of power looked like a kaleidoscope of bright red and white. If this wasn't a fight to the death, it would actually look kinda pretty.

[AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!]

Both of them roared and with one final push, they tried overpowering the other. Resulting both attacks reaching a breaking point and the struggle ending in mutual destruction, both the flames and the magic disbursed and both of the users were blown away.

BAAAANNNNG!

 **Music Off**

The result of their disbursed attacks caused yet another explosion that blew everything away. Following that was a cloud of dust and rubble that covered the entire school gate to the bridge. When the dust settled and everything was clear, Shirou and Vali stood back in the exact same spots they were in when all this started. Not looking fazed, not having any injuries, not even seeming tired from that display of power or even the whole fight.

"I think we've played around long enough." Vali brought up.

"True, this time let's do it for real." Shirou agreed.

Shirou lifted his hand and Vali spread out his arms. They both smirked confidently and their bodies started to emit auras. Shirou's being red and Vali's being white. Soon they were about to utter the words that would destroy the balance of the world.

[Balance Br—]

Zaaa!

Before they could finish. Two Swords were thrust towards Vali's neck and brought the two Dragon Emperors to a halt.

Kiba and Xenovia were the ones who appeared in that instant. They were holding their Holy-Demonic Sword and the Holy Sword Durandal towards the Vali.

They didn't give off a presence until now which means they just arrived. With the Knight's God-like speed they came running to this location because they sensed trouble. The Holy Demonic Sword and Holy Sword together were emitting an intense aura. Both of their eyes are pointed, glaring daggers at the person before them.

"I don't know what you plan to do but don't you think your joke went too far?"

"I can't let you start your rival showdown with the Red Dragon Emperor here, White Dragon Emperor."

Kiba and Xenovia both speak in voices that worked on DOS.

However, he didn't seem fazed. On the contrary, Vali and Shirou for that matter both just had a look of displeasure on their faces. Like when two guys are enjoying themselves by seeing something that is fun and hilarious but then someone tells a bad joke and it just brings the whole mood down.

"It's better if you stopped that." Vali advised them. "—Aren't your hands shaking."

As he said, Kiba and Xenovia's hands were shaking. The Swords which could be called tremendous, while grasping the Holy Demonic sword and Holy Sword tightly, their expressions were stiffening. They tried to hide it by they were definitely intimidated.

"It's fine to boast. But not knowing the difference between your opponent's strength is strong evidence. —Between me and you, there is a decisive difference in power. You who couldn't win against the likes of Kokabiel wouldn't stand a chance against me." Vali warned them. "Interfering in a fight between Dragon often leads to a quick death."

"You two." Shirou spoke out getting their attention. "Not that I don't appreciate the thought, but this guy is out of your league. Lower your weapons or you'll be dead before you'll know which direction he hit you from."

Deciding to heed his warning, the two Knight took their Swords away from Vali's neck and stepped back.

"Shirou Tsukiharu, what rank do you think your strength is in this world?"

Vali sudden brought up a new topic, but Shirou decided to roll with it.

"Hmph, the number of people it can imagine who are above me in strength is a number I can count with just the fingers on one hand." Shirou answered.

"Hmph, then you must not have a very good imagination." Vali taunted him. "Counting from the top in your best condition while using your complete Balance Breaker, it would be a 3 digit number- between 400 to 350. No, with your power being so inconsistent, you're constantly growing in strength so it should be even higher?"

"3 digit isn't good enough for me, I plan on reaching the top." Shirou proclaimed. "Besides, even if they're stronger, that doesn't mean I'll lose. Only idiots think they can always win by just being strong."

"A wise truth, I don't necessarily disagree. But you should be aware that there are a lot of strong people in this world. Even the Crimson Satan, Sirzechs Lucifer won't fit in the top ten." Vali informed him, before holding up one finger. "However, the first place is decided. —It's a fixed existence."

"Are you saying you met the top ranker?" Shirou question, interested.

Vali smiles coyly to his question. "Indeed I have. You'll meet them before long as well, I'm sure of it. After all Shirou Tsukiharu, you're a valuable existence. Not only as the Welsh Dragon but because you're the heir to a strong bloodline that is the Amakusa." He then looks in the direction behind Shirou. "Don't you think so too, Rias Gremory?"

Following his gaze, Rias on the bridge behind them was standing. She a serious, displeased expression. Around her, there was Asia, Mika, Akeno, Ren and Koneko as well. Correspondingly Asia was troubled and in contrast, Akeno and Koneko looked ready to fight. Mika and Ren looked serious, but obviously had no intention of fighting.

"Hakuryuukou, what's the meaning of this?" Rias questioned, sternly. "If you're having ties with the Fallen Angels then more contact than required is—"

"'The Two Heavenly Dragons', the Dragons called that way. Welsh Dragon and Vanishing Dragon." Vali interrupted her. "In the past, those related didn't live a satisfactory life. How will you end up?"

Those words silenced Rias. Seeing everyone was quiet now Shirou decided to ask.

"How'd you all know we were fighting?"

"Even though you created a barrier. The power born from a clash between two strong powers was something even an amateur would notice." Ren explained. "And with Senjutsu I was able to tell it was the Vanishing Dragon you were fighting since I felt his aura once before. After learning that I informed Mika."

"We felt the surging of power as well." Akeno added. "And we found out who it was thanks to Koneko-chan."

"Damn, I put up that barrier because I was hoping we wouldn't be interrupted. But I should've guessed we'd be caught from all that power we were throwing around." Shirou groaned, looking disappointed. "Talk about a buzz kill."

"I agree, I was actually hoping we could finish our battle, but it seems we'll have to wait." Vali added, a bit of disappointment was in his tone as well. "No matter though, it'll happen soon enough. It's fate after all."

"Tch, you keep talking about fate this and fate that, but that stuff means nothing to me." Shirou told him looking confident. "The only time your fate is predetermined is in works of fiction. The strong decided their own fate."

Hearing his bold declaration Vali just looked interested and amused. Now they both stared at each other, standing ramrod-straight up, their hands were in their pockets and both having a confident smirk on their faces that radiated pure strength and absolute confidence. It was like the tension in the air went up and a battle was still raging between the two of them. The others looked a little worried that they might start fighting again.

Seeing that turned his head to put them at ease. "Relax, I didn't come here to fight today. I just wanted to see the school I visited last time. I came to Japan while escorting Azazel, but I was bored. I originally just wanted to see the Welsh Dragon's power and had only planned to test the waters, but I ended up getting caught in his flow and started to fight in earnest." Vali admitted, not ashamed by it. "Unfortunately I can't go further so I'll have to leave, not to mention I have a lot of work to do."

After saying that, the Vali turns his heels, and starts to leave this place.

"Hold it." Shirou called him out. "I just have one question; you're not a Human, are you?"

Vali stopped but didn't turn around.

"Shirou, What do mean?" Rias asked, concerned.

"The thing that first drew me to you was your insanely high magic power, it was easily one of the biggest I've ever felt and that's saying a lot." Shirou elaborated. "There's no way an ordinary Human that's around my age could be that strong, even with a Longinus."

"Actually, there is one." Vali corrected him, amused. "But it's not me."

"What?" Shirou thought, unnerved by what Vali was implying.

"You're right though. I'm only half Human, as for the other half though…" Vali turned his head and grinned. "That's really none of your business."

With that Vali turned around again and in a second he vanished, completely out of sight. Even though he had left, the feeling of nervousness didn't go away. Kiba and Xenovia sheathed their Swords but there was no relief to their expression.

Asia who came up to Shirou, nestled onto him and without any words grasps his hand with her own. Shirou didn't mind considering what just happened. Rias also came up to him and also held his hand, but Shirou could feel her hand was sweating, showing how nervous she was back there despite trying to show a strong front.

"I'm sorry." Rias said, looking down. "I came here because I wanted to help you, but when faced with the Vanishing Dragon, I couldn't do a thing."

Shirou released his hand from hers and placed his hand on her head, petting her affectionately as if to put her at ease. "Don't beat yourself up about it, from the start I planned on taking him myself."

Rias nodded, but still looked upset by it. Mika then walked up to his right looking serious.

"Be honest, what's your opinion?" Mika asked. "I won't mince words, how strong is he?"

"Hard to say, that was a just a scuffle in every sense. But the whole time I was trying to be on the offensive, yet he kept making that hard and putting me on defensive half the time." Shirou analyzed, frowning. "Now that I've seen him fight I'm pretty sure I can take him much easier next time, but…"

"…But that's only if he's not wearing his armor." Mika finished his sentence, knowingly.

Shirou nodded. "This is gonna be a bitch of a fight."

"I believe in you." Rias suddenly spoke, getting his attention. "Even if something happens. I know because it's you, I believe you can win against the White Dragon Emperor." Her words were filled with honest and an affectionate look in her eyes.

Shirou looked a little surprised by her words but then had his usual, confident expression. "Damn right. No one beats Shirou-Sama."

* * *

After the meeting with Vali, everyone went home to help ease off the tension. Now it was the day after that and classroom visit had begun at Kuoh Academy.

Though they say it's a classroom visit in actuality, it is more of an open house display. It's natural that it's all right for parents to come, but it's also all right for students from Middle School to visit and see how the classes are. It's possible that the guardians of those Middle school students will also come to visit; it's quite an open event.

Not only do parents visit, but also because Kuoh Academy's Middle school division's Underclassmen will come to visit, those of the High school division usually become excessively nervous, since they always try to leave a good impression in front of the Kouhais.

Shirou and Rias walked to School together and while saying Rias said. "…I am not interested.". She somehow seems to dislike classroom visit. Though her Father and Sirzechs are visiting, though for those who saw how she gets around her family it was kind of obvious why she wouldn't want them around. If two Crimson-haired men visit the classroom, it'll become a hot topic of discussion.

After reaching the School entrance, the two of them parted ways and went to their respective classrooms. Asia came to school with Xenovia and was already present so he didn't have to worry about that. As soon as he sat on his seat, Shirou just tiredly laid his head down on his desk and Ren approached him.

"You okay?" Ren asked. "You look more bored than usual in class."

"Ren, its open house." Shirou reminded him. "Everyone's always so giddy thinking "Oh I want to look good in front of my parents" or "I want to show off in front of the Middle School kids", it's annoying as hell."

Ren scratched his head. "Well, you got me there."

"It's times like this I envy Mika." Shirou sighed. "Since she dropped out she doesn't have to deal with this crap."

"Then why don't you drop out?" Ren suggested it. "Before you had to, but after becoming a Devil you could drop out without consequences, so why don't you?"

"Reasons." Was all he said.

"I understand." Was his only response.

"Shirou."

Before they knew it, Xenovia had approached the duo.

Xenovia quickly become popular among her peers, especially among the boys. Since she has both a beautiful face and body as well. Though strangely enough, she's popular among girls as well. Shirou wanted to believe it was because her physical abilities were also good, if not than his opinion of this School would have to drop yet again.

"What's up, Xenovia." Shirou addressed.

Though the truth was Shirou was actually hoping he didn't have deal with Xenovia. Considering what happened the other day he was planning to avoid her for a bit.

What he didn't expect though was Xenovia to lower her head on his response.

"Sorry for saying that sort of thing suddenly the other day." She said regretfully. "I kept on speaking without thinking about you. Suddenly doing that kind of thing is difficult after all, I think."

"I feel like I'm missing something here, what happened?" Ren asked, completely lost.

"The other day Rias told Xenovia to find desires and live for them, and Xenovia decided to illustrate that as wanting to ride me like a horse and swipe my genes." Shirou explained, irritated. "

"Ah." Ren nodded as if he understood now. "I know what you're talking about. Before Asia told me you guys went swimming but Xenovia never showed up, then later they found her unconscious in the storage room, without her swimsuit. Guess that's why."

Xenovia nodded, admitting it. "Yes that's right, and I'm very sorry about how I acted."

"Why?" Shirou asked, confused. "It's only been a few days, why the sudden change of perspective?"

"After what happened I wanted to know exactly what went wrong, so I spoke with Mika about it." Xenovia explained.

* * *

 **FLASHBACK...**

Xenovia was with Mika in the living room of the Tsukiharu household. They were sitting across from each other at the dining room table and Xenovia came to ask Mika for advice. Since no one else was home this was a good time to ask. Mika smiled, crossed her hands and placed them together beneath her chin to look sophisticated.

"I understand exactly what the problem was." Mika told her.

"You do?" Xenovia asked hopefully.

"Absolutely, in fact." Mika held up two fingers. "There were two problems I saw in your actions."

"Two?" Xenovia repeated. "What were they?"

"The first, there are three types of people, those who are subservient to others, those who dominate others and demand their subservience and those are apathetic to everything." Mika explained. "Big Bro is the second kind. In fact, he tries to assert his dominance in any given situation, like he always wants to showcase that he's in control of the situation. That's his nature."

"I have noticed him acting abrasive most of the time." Xenovia noticed. "In fact, he was the only who didn't bow or change his way of speaking when addressing Lord Lucifer."

"Exactly, that's where the problem with you came." Mika informed her. "You came up to him and insisted to have his child, but you do so in a way where he had no say in the matter, you just decided for yourself and expected him to just shut up and go along with it. Naturally, someone of his nature wouldn't just let someone try bossing him around while disregarding his words or consent and not get pissed off. Hence why he knocked you out and left."

Xenovia just nodded and took in this information, as if she was learning valuable things that were important. "And the second reason?"

"That one is entirely on you." Mika said, bluntly. "I mean this in the nicest way possible but; no matter how I look at it, anyone would agree that you royally screwed up in your choice of actions."

"How so?" Xenovia asked, confused.

"Your idea of having kids is basically a one-night stand concept, you go in, get the genes and get out. But anyone else obviously wouldn't feel the same way. Making a child with someone is like creating a bond or an extremely deep and intimate connection that no one else can share, it's something that belongs to only the two of you." Mika explained, in-depth. "Not just Big Bro, lots of people see it that way. And that's why they want to make share the person they experience that with is someone they truly want to have with them during something that intimate."

Xenovia looked down as if she was deep in thought. "I was only thinking what I believed was my desire, I had no idea it was such a complicated thing."

"And because you didn't know you, it blew up in your face." Mika reminded her. "Honestly, you're just to blunt and pushy. The way I see it, even if it was someone else they would have said no. A person they barely know just barges in and wants to railroad them into baby-making, even someone really perverted would react negatively."

"I understand now." Xenovia proclaimed, looking up. "Thank you for explaining all that to me."

* * *

"After speaking with her I was finally able to understand what I did wrong." Xenovia told him. "And so I wanted you to know."

Ren blinked. "Huh? Who'd guessed Mika knew how to talk sense into people."

"Not that surprising actually, she's done it before." Shirou noted.

"I put you in an uncomfortable and unfavourable position because I was only thinking of myself and that was wrong of me." Xenovia continued. "That's why—"

Xenovia reaches into her pocket and takes something out. At this point not, strangely enough, it was condoms still in their packs, one for each finger. Shirou and Ren facepalmed.

"I should've of known." Shirou groaned.

"Guess it only sort of worked." Ren groaned.

"Don't worry, I won't ask you for it now, these are for preparation." Xenovia assured him. "Since I know you like being in control I'll wait for your call. If you ever want to invite me to your bed then say the word. I'll always keep these on hand so I'll always be ready for it."

"Well… I suppose that's a _bit_ better." Shirou figured.

"Still gonna need to work on it though." Ren added.

"Hi guys." Asia said, walking up to them with a smile, with Aika beside her. "Oh, those are pretty." She unknowingly said about the condoms.

Turning to the girl, Xenovia placed a condom in Asia's hands. "Here you should take one too."

"Oh, thanks." Asia said taking one of them and looking at it more closely. "What are you suppose to do with it?"

"I'm not explaining it." Shirou brushed off.

"Well, I sure as Hell am not." Ren brushed off.

Aika grinned mischievously. "I'll explain it." She then placed a hand on Asia's shoulder, leaned closer and started to whisper in her ear.

Suddenly Asia started blushing. "…...Uuh."

Asia fainted after her head became pure red.

"Wow, she fainted." Ren noted, with mild concern.

"Give her a few minutes, she always gets up before long." Shirou assured him.

"Say, I think I use this brand." Aika noticed, looking at the condom. "Wow Shirou, I didn't think you could get a girl to want your "D" right after she met you."

"Don't start with me Aika." Shirou warned her.

Aika then placed a finger on her chin. "But, I wonder if it's all right. If you sleep with Xenovia then Asia will—."

"Kiryuu-saaaaan! Please stoooooooop!" The suddenly revived Asia covers Kiryuu's mouth. Somehow, she seemed to be in a maximum hurry level.

"Huh, she got up in less than a minute, a new record." Shirou commented.

"Geez, Asia. I told you right? If you don't start moving soon, Shirou will become something troublesome. There are a lot of formidable enemies around him, you know? If you keep dilly-dallying, before you know it he may be eaten." Aika explained, grinning erotically. "You won't like that, right? A man with the scent of another woman."

"Ouch! Why does Kiryuu-san keep on giving me explosive blasts like that…" Asia cried out.

"I am worried." Aika assured her. "You're fine with me being your only ally, right? I am fine with a clean mood as well but you gotta do what you gotta do at times! Even you, Asia is ripe enough for eating!"

Asia turned to Shirou. "Am I r-ripe enough for eating?" She asked, both nervous and worried.

"How the Hell should I know?" Shirou responded, uncaring.

Aika then placed a hand on Asia's shoulder and shook her head. "That's a shame, Asia, he turned you down. Guess you won't be eaten." She consoled her, with fake emotion.

Asia gasped and looked upset like she was told something horrible.

Xenovia raised her hand. "Just for the record, I'm ripe enough for eating."

"Look I don't care who's ripe or not." Shirou told them. "I'm not "eating" anyone right now."

"So you're saying you'll eat us later?" Xenovia surmized.

"Is that true?" Asia asked hopefully.

"Okay fuck this shit I'm out." Shirou said feed up.

And with that he got up from his seat and walked away, leaving the classroom.

"Why'd he leave?" Xenovia asked, confused.

"Ren-san, did we say something to make him upset?" Asia asked.

"You know I'd love to answer that question, but right now I have to…... Bye." Ren finished.

And with that Ren fled the scene without bothering to think of an excuse. Leaving a confused Asia and Mika, plus an Aika who was trying to hold back her laughter.

* * *

A little while later, Shirou and Ren were standing by an open hallway on the first floor next to a vending machine. Ren put in some money and pushed a button.

"You want anything?" Ren offered.

"I'm good." Shirou replied.

"Well, this is a surprise."

A voice suddenly said getting their attention. They both turned to see Rias and Akeno walking up to them. Surprisingly enough they were accompanied by Mika.

"What are you two doing here?" Akeno asked. "I thought classes for the Second Year's still had a few more minutes before letting out."

"Yeah well, we decided to leave early." Ren said while taking his drink from the vending machine. "Besides we're not missing much. All their doing in there is making clay statues or some other crap."

"Besides, the only thing this day has going on is all the parents attending to watch their kids." Shirou shrugged. "Neither of us nor Asia have parents, plus Aika's parents are out of town right now and couldn't make it, so this is just another day for us, except it's more crowded."

"So basically you ditched." Mika summarized.

"Well personally, I _wish_ my family couldn't make it to this." Rias complained.

"Did something happen?" Ren asked, before taking a sip of his drink.

Akeno smiled. "It's nothing, she's just embarrassed about having her Brother and Father at her school.

"Typical teenage girl trouble." Mika added.

"That reminds me, why are you here anyway?" Shirou questioned his Sister. "You don't go to school and you hate crowds."

Mika shrugged. "I got bored with being home alone so I went to the club room, then I decided it'd be interesting if I tagged along with these two." She explained.

"Is it?" Ren asked.

"Better than nothing." Mika stated, being vague.

All of a sudden they all heard a loud herd of male voices coming together and running through a nearby hallway. They all seemed excited for some reason and were stampeding towards the auditorium. While they were running they could hear bits and pieces of what they were saying.

"No way, a Magical Girl photo shoot!"

"Come on get your cameras, we've got to get in on this!"

Shirou raised a brow. "Well, that was…... Random?"

"Did they just say Magical Girl photo shoot!?" Mika exclaimed, excited as well. She then grabbed Shirou's arm and started pulling it. "I'll wanna go! I'll wanna go! I'll wanna go!"

"Quit it you chimp!" Shirou shouted annoyed, then he sighed. "Whatever let's go."

"I'll admit it, I wouldn't mind seeing this too." Ren admitted, unashamed.

Rias and Akeno had a different reaction to this news.

"It can't be!" Rias said alarmed.

"Or can it?" Akeno smiled and chuckled.

* * *

Deciding to check it out they all made their way into the auditorium. The moment they entered, they found it was filled with a crowd of guys taking pictures of a…... Well, a girl in Magical Girl cosplay. Standing on the stage was a girl who looked around the age of a middle school teen, with black hair tied in two pigtails and violet eyes that seemed somewhat familiar. Despite her child-like face and figure, her breasts were very developed and really seemed to excite the crowd.

Though the real eye-catcher was her outfit. Her costume consisted of a short pink skirt, a sleeveless pink crop top, black fingerless gloves that went up to her shoulders, a pink hat, black thigh knee high socks with pink straps and boots. She also carried a pink staff that had a star on top of it.

KACCHA! KACCHA!

Flashes kept going off, the men who were holding cameras were photographing without end while the girl just seemed to love the attention and kept posing.

"No way! That's the "Magical Girl, Milky kiss Viral 7 alternative"." Mika said with stars in her eyes. "And she looks exactly like the character on the box so much it's like it's the actual character."

"She's not to bad." Ren checked her out. "Little flashy though."

"Yeah, one of my pacts I made involved being summoned by a gorilla of a man dressed like that, so right now I'm not too into Magical Girls." Shirou grimaced.

"Come on, it was just that one time." Ren pointed out.

"I still get summoned by him from time-to-time and one time he invited his friends who were just as big and also dressed like that." Shirou argued.

"Yeah, forget I said anything." Ren relented.

KACCHA! KACCHA!

This time they heard camera flashes going off right next to them and looked to she Mika taking pictures with her phone.

"You're photo shooting this too?" Ren asked.

"Is there any Otaku out there that wouldn't?" Mika asked sarcastic, defending her actions.

"Still though, it's kind of weird that she's getting away with this." Shirou noticed. "You'd someone would try to put a stop to the photo shot."

"Someone did."

A new voice spoke out and they turned to see Saito leaning by the wall, looking bored.

"Saito?" Ren addressed. "How come your here?"

The Pawn of the Sitri Peerage shrugged. "Sona heard something was going on in the auditorium and told me to go deal with it." He pointed to the crowd. "But when I saw that I knew it'd be a pain, so now I'm just waiting until they get bored and leave or something."

"Ara, Isn't that being irresponsible?" Akeno asked, amused.

"I'm not Sona." Saito shrugged off. "Not like I care about this stupid school."

"Hey! Hey you! Who's doing a photography shoot on a public place!"

While saying that, girls who looked like members of the Student Council come towards the photography scene. It was Tsubasa the Sitri Rook, Tomoe the Sitri Rook and Ruruko the other Sitri Pawn.

"Hey hey, disperse, disperse! Today's the day for displaying classes to the public! Don't make a ruckus at this kind of place!"

Tomoe yelled at all of them. That big horde of a crowd was disappearing like spider's children dispersing. The young men with the cameras who were photographing were also leaving reluctantly due to Tsubasa's pushing. The remaining people were Shirou's group, Rias and Akeno, Saito, the rest of the Council girls, and the cosplay girl.

"You too, please don't wear that kind of costume." Ruruko told her off. "Wait, would you be a parent perhaps? Even if that's the case, you know there's a dress code according to the place. This is troublesome."

"Eh, but this is my uniform "

Ruruko pressed her warning but the cosplay girl while posing in cute poses didn't pay heed.

Tsubasa grit her teeth but soon looked towards Saito.

"And you Saito, why were you just standing there when the President ordered you to deal with this?" She questioned, disapprovingly.

"I was working on it." Saito responded. "Besides why'd you take so long to get here?"

"We were just guiding Maou-sama and his Father." Tomoe answered.

As she said that, the sound of a door opening was heard and the others turned their head towards the sound, under the guidance of Sona Sitri, the Crimson haired male that was Sirzechs approached.

"What's going on here?" Sona asked, in a commanding tone. "Saito, I told you to settle things concisely—"

Sona started talking strictly and the other Student Council girls left since they did their job, but as soon as Sona saw the Magical Girl she stopped speaking. Instead had the facial expression of someone who just saw something horrifying and wanted to run away at that moment.

"Sona-chan! Found you " The girl exclaimed.

After which, said Magical Girl jumped off the stage and happily clung to Sona.

"Those two know each other?" Ren asked.

"Of course, they're Sisters." Akeno said.

"Sona has a younger Sister?" Shirou asked, surprised.

Rias shook her head. "No, she has an older Sister. Despite her appearance that is a fully matured, grown woman."

"And she is a Devil King. Serafall Leviathan." Sirzechs introduced her.

.

.

.

All three of the boys just stared with dot eyes after hearing that surprising and somewhat ridiculous revelation.

"I think you're mistaken here." Shirou pointed at her. "Just the chest is of a grown woman, just the chest is fully matured, what kind of misshapen growth rate do you people have?"

"How the Hell does it make sense that the younger Sister looks more like the older Sister than the actually older Sister?" Saito asked, also taken aback. "If she didn't have those A-cups I wouldn't believe it."

"How did this go from comparing looks to comparing breasts?" Ren asked, confused.

"Serafall-sama, it's been a long time." Rias greeted her.

"Ara, Rias-chan ." Serafall looked happy to see her. "Long time~ Have you been doing well?"

Because she talked with a cute tone, Rias was also a bit troubled.

"Y-Yes. Thanks to you." Rias tried not to show it. "Did you come today for Sona's class visit?"

"Yeah, Sona-chan is really mean. She didn't tell me about today! Geez! Because of the shock, Onee-chan was going to attack Heaven " She pointed her staff upwards.

"I can't tell. If she's being serious or not?" Ren asked.

"Either one could be possible." Mika answered.

"Shirou, Mika. Greet her." Rias instructed them.

Shirou shrugged. "I'm Shirou."

Mika quickly went up to her being giddy about it. "Hi, I'm Mika. Big fan of your work, love it, love you. I'm very glad to meet you like this."

She talked like an Otaku who was excitingly talking to her favourite cosplayer rather than a Low-Class Devil greeting a Devil King. Though in a way the first part was also accurate given the situation.

"Nice to meet you. I am the Satan Serafall Leviathan. Call me Levia-tan " While turning sideways, she makes a peace sign.

"Wait…. Levia-tan as in "Miracle Levia-tan?" Mika asked hopefully.

Serafall gasped. "You watch my show?!"

"Oh my gosh, it is you!" Mika exclaimed, excited and amazed. "I love your show, I binge-watched the whole thing in one sit down, It was the BEST!"

"Oh thank you so much!" Serafall exclaimed, both flattered and excited. "It's always great to meet someone who's a fan, that's one of the best things about being a Magical Girl!"

"She has a show?" Ren asked, surprised.

"It's a side-job of her's." Akeno answered. "It's broadcasted in the Underworld and mostly sold there, but Serafall-sama does have copies delivered to be sold in the Human world from time-to-time."

 _"Wait, now that I think about it, I think I did see Mika watching a Magical Girl called Levia-something one night after I came back for a pact."_ Shirou thought, remembering from a time during his first days as a Devil. _"I barely noticed it, still how the hell could I've known that was a Devil King?"_

"Hey, Levia-tan." Mika brought out her phone. "Can I take a picture with you?"

"Of course, I'd love to." Serafall smiled and they both posed in front of the screen.

KACCHA!

"I am so happy I came today." Mika gushed.

Serafall then looked to Shirou, then Sirzechs.

"Hey, Sirzechs-chan. Is this boy the rumoured Dragon-kun?"

She called Sirzechs with a 'chan'. Although, since they're both Satan's and have known each other for like a century it was probably something he was used to.

"Yes, he's the person in which the Welsh Dragon resides, Shirou Tsukiharu-kun." He answered, happily.

"Then these two are the famous Tsukiharu siblings." Now Serafall pointed at both of them. "The descendants of the Amakusa."

"That what people know me for?!" Shirou questioned, disappointed. "I wanted to become famous from my own merit."

"It's okay, Brostopper." Mika consoled him while patting his back. "Your day will come, just you wait."

Shirou swatted her arm away. "Did you just "There, there" me?"

Rias looked at them apologetically. "I forgot to say it—No, I didn't want to say it but for the four current Satan's, every one of them is like this. During private times, they are really amenable, to a severe extent."

"You mean every Satan has some weird quirk to them?" Ren asked, before looking at Sirzechs and Serafall back and forth. "…...Yeah, I see it."

Looking at it, Sona's face was completely red. It was like looking at her elder Sister, her speech and conduct, she was feeling completely embarrassed. Noticing that, Serafall looked into Sona's face with worry.

"Sona-chan, what's wrong? Your face is completely red, you know? Since it's the long-awaited reunion with your Onee-sama, me, I think it would be better if you were a bit happier? 'Onee-sama!' 'So-tan!', calling like that and embracing each other in a yuri way, that sort of development is fine with me as well, Onee-chan!"

Sona just stared at her with an unsatisfied expression. While twitching near her eyes.

Ren noticed Saito had an extremely satisfied expression on his face as if he was being entertained.

"Are you enjoying this?"

"You better believe I am." Saito answered, with a wide grin. "Seeing Sona of all people in a situation like this is oddly satisfying, especially compared to her usual self."

"I won't lie, I'm enjoying this too." Shirou said, trying to hold back his laughter.

 _"Huh, Shirou had the same reaction when he saw Rias losing her composer because of her Brother."_ Ren noticed. _"Guess Mika was right, some guys just love seeing stuff like that."_

"…O-Onee-sama." Sona addressed her, trying to keep her composer. "This is my School and I am entrusted with the job of the Student Council President here… No matter how close relatives we are, Onee-sama's behaviour is, too much… I can't approve of that sort of outfit." She finished, frustrated.

"No way, Sona-chan!" Serafall cried out, upset. "If I am told that by Sona-chan, your Onee-chan will be sad! Sona-chan doesn't know that her Onee-chan is admired as the Magical girl! Since with the glittering stick, I erase Angels and Fallen Angels." She lifted her staff and posed again.

Shirou raised a brow. "If she does that, then what pry tell was the point of the Peace Summit?"

"Onee-sama, Please be prudent." Sona berated her. "If my Onee-sama, the Maou glitters, then this small country would be destroyed many times over."

"Wait, she has that much power?" Ren said, somewhat impressed.

"You know I think I finally get why she didn't want to call her Sister during the battle against Kokabiel." Shirou realized.

"It's exactly what your thinking." Rias nodded. "Since in conversation Serafall Leviathan-sama dotes on her little Sister so much, if she would have been called, it would have become something terrible. It seems if she found out that her little Sister was injured by the Fallen Angel, we didn't know how she would have reacted. It would have probably been instant war." She explained, a little troubled. "It was the correct decision to not call Serafall-sama, and rather call my Brother. However. It hardly makes much of a difference since the fight was settled before help even arrived."

"And she's supposed to be in charge of Foreign Affairs?" Shirou questioned.

"Don't be concerned, despite how she appears she's actually quiet good at her job." Sirzechs assured them. "She just has her own way of enjoying her personal time."

Suddenly Sona cried out. "Uuh, I can't bear it!"

And with that her calm and composed self fell apart and Sona had her eyes wet with tears, as she ran away from that place.

"Wait! Sona-chan! Why are you going leaving your Onee-chan behind!"

Serafall cried out as she ran after her.

"Please don't follow me!" Sona shouted behind her.

"Noooooo! Don't abandon your Onee-chaaaaaaan! So-taaaaaan!" Serafall wailed, chasing after her.

"I have asked you so many times not to add 'tan'!" Sona yelled in the distance.

"Haha, this I gotta see." Shirou chuckled as he ran off in the direction they went.

"And that's about the worst of it." Rias said, used to those events.

Ren turned to Saito. "Aren't you going to follow them?"

"Nah, that was enough to keep me happy." Saito said, still looking satisfied. "It'll take all day to wipe this smile off my face."

Sirzechs just smiled after seeing Sona and Serafall's exchange. "Yeah. The Sitri household is peaceful. Don't you think so, Ria-tan."

"Onii-sama, don't add a 'tan' to my pet name and call me that please….…" Rias said, embarrassed.

This time the embarrassing conversation started in the Gremory household.

"No way… Ria-tan. Even though in the past you followed me every-time while saying 'Onii-sama Onii-sama'… It's the rebellious age, huh…" Sirzechs took it as a shock.

"Geez! Onii-sama! Why do you remind me of my childhood." Rias complied.

"Bet she's really glad Shirou-kun didn't here that." Akeno commented.

"Yeah, but it's a surprise." Mika noted. "To think both Devil Kings are Sis-Cons, and both their feelings are unrequited."

"Aren't you a Bro-Con." Ren reminded her. "Plus your feelings are also unrequited."

Mika just grinned. "True they are….… For now anyway.

* * *

Later, after the chase had gone on for a while and Sona had finally gotten away from here Sister, she and Shirou were sitting on a bench. No one else was around and while Sona was sitting there with a frustrated and loathing frown, Shirou was just laughing about the situation.

"Gahahahaha!"

"Stop laughing already!" Sona snapped at him.

"Relax would you, at least you got away from her." Shirou pointed out, still laughing. "You were able to escape by hiding inside the guys' locker room, I still can't believe you did that, Hahaha!"

"Please don't bring it up again." Sona messaged her head. "I just want this day to end already."

"Still though, it is refreshing." Shirou commented. "You always try playing the part of some Stone-Cold Campus Queen, yet even you have times where you ironically act like a normal girl. Like being embarrassed by your family."

"Well, I'm glad you find enjoyment in my humiliation." Sona barked, sarcastically. "Why must she act this way. She's over a century old and yet my Sister behaves like a child."

"Well, she looks like one." Shirou reminded her.

"That's part of the problem. Devils can use magic to choose how old they want to look." Sona reminded him. "Even though she's an adult she chooses to have a child-like appearance and why? Just so she can look more like a Magical Girl."

"Yeah, I can see that. Most Devils I've seen choose to look like adults in their prime. But if someone really wanted to, it wouldn't be hard to look like a teen." Shirou noted. "And dressing like a Magical Girl would just seem out of place otherwise."

"Everything she does cause me endless problems." Sona complained. "I thought at least here at School I wouldn't have to deal with her and yet she still came."

"Hey, do you dislike your Sister?" Shirou asked curiously.

Sona sighed and answered. "No, in fact, I'm proud of her. She's a Maou and even before that she was easily one of the most talented Sitri in our family's history, plus she was called the Strongest Woman in the Underworld. And even disregarding all that, she's my older Sister." She said honestly. "I both respect and admire her greatly and I love her like anyone would for their Sister. But….…"

"But she too much for you to handle." Shirou finished her sentence. "And your personalities conflict in situations like this."

"That's right." Sona agreed. "I know she cares about me, but she just expresses it to extravagantly. It always feels like she never listens to a word I say and even though she doesn't mean to, every time she around I always feel so small. Like I'm a child around her."

"It doesn't matter how big you get, you'll never be bigger than your big Sister." Shirou recited.

"If she was an ordinary big Sister I could deal with that, but she's anything but that." Sona responded. "She is easily the hardest person to deal with for me. Not mention the way she acts in general, always acting like some sparkly, glittery character she saw in an Anime. I just don't understand why she acts this way."

"You sure? Seems pretty obvious if you ask me." Shirou responded.

Sona blinked, confused. "What, in what way?"

"First answer me this; was she like this around the time she became the new Leviathan?" Shirou asked, to which Sona nodded confirming it. "Then I think I know why. Most likely she's trying to cope with herself and her current life."

Sona's expression showed she didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

"She and Sirzechs are around the same age, meaning when she was born it was while the Devil's Civil War was already taking place. In short, she was born in an Era of War. If that wasn't enough, after being old enough she had to fight in said war herself, and because of her great strength as a Devil she probably had to take part in battle after battle without end." Shirou explained, being serious. "Human Wars can already mess you up, but Devil Wars are much worse since they last much longer and have some much more people involved. You can only imagine to horrors those who lived through it had to witness."

Now Sona was silently listening, even though she never really gave it much thought until now she knew he had a point, though that made her more interested in where he was going with this. Shirou quickly continued.

"If that wasn't enough, not long after the war ended, she was chosen to be the Satan Leviathan. Thus before she knew it, she went from fighting for her race to become a leader of her race. And even though the setting was different she was given a responsibility where her actions effect everyone around her and every decision she makes can carry great consequences. The amount of pressure that comes with all that is crazy, it's enough to break most people." Shirou explained to her. "So when you think about, her whole life she's always had to be what the Underworld needed her to be, whether it was a warrior or a Devil King."

Sona took in and hung her head down a bit after hearing all he said.

"I never really looked at it that way, or rather I chose not to even though it sounds so obvious when you say it like that." Sona admitted, a little guilty. "It's just, she always looked so vibrant and upbeat so it never really crossed my mind."

"Her behaviour isn't unusual. When people go through things that leave a lasting impact on them, they tend to adopt some kind of quirk, trait or complex to help them cope." Shirou informed her. "Serafall's one might be….… Different than most, but the fundamental concept is still the same. She only has so much time to herself, so she uses it to act however she wants and enjoys every moment of it to its fullest."

"Is that true?" Sona asked. "Do people gain new aspects of themselves after great experiences?"

"I believe they do, after all, Mika and I are examples." Shirou pointed out, surprising Sona. "From losing our parents, to having to survive in the world while having nothing but each other. After that, she became a NEET so she could shut herself off from the world and I just kept swinging my fists at everyone to keep anyone from getting close." He then smiled. "But sometimes those new quirks become more than just a way to cope. After having them for a while they end up turning into something you do because you actually like them, like how your Sister just acts like a Magical Girl now because she genuinely likes being one. It happens."

"I see, I suppose you would know about that." Sona realized, before sighing. "Well, I still find her incredibly embarrassing, but I try to be more considerate in future."

Shirou shrugged. "That's the least you can do."

"Still though I'm a bit surprised, I never thought I'd talking to you about all this." Sona commented, before thinking. _"But then again, you've always been good at knowing what others are thinking—"_

* * *

 **Eight Months Ago...**

Eight months ago during the fall seasons at Kuoh Academy, the leaves were dying and falling from trees the sky was cloudy outside the students were in high spirits because midterms had just ended and the School was now preparing for the annual cultural festival. Sona Stiri, also known as Sona Shitori a Second-Year and President of the Student Council was currently in the Student Council room and sitting behind her desk looking of the documents for planning the festival.

KNOCK, KNOCK

"Enter." Sona acknowledged.

When the door opened two people had entered the council room, the first being another Second-Year and Vice-President of the Student Council; Tsubaki Shinra whom at the request of Sona was tasked with escorting someone here. The second person to enter was that someone, a First-Year and the School's most famous and infamous male student; Shirou Tsukiharu.

"I've brought him here as you requested, President." Tsubaki informed her, with respect.

"Thank you, Tsubaki." Sona replied, with gratitude. "Leave us."

With those words Tsubaki bowed and exited the room, leaving Shirou and Sona alone.

"Shirou Tsukiharu." Sona addressed him. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you why you've been brought here."

Shirou groaned. "Look whatever it is you think I did, I didn't alright. I haven't done anything yet."

Sona chose to ignore the "yet" part of his statement. "You aren't here for punishment." She informed him. "I've called you in here for an assignment. You are to assist the Second-Year festival organizing committee with the establishment and preparation of the cultural festival."

"What? That's bullshit." Shirou cursed, clearly not happy about that arrangement. "Why I am I getting conscripted into doing grunt work for the Second-Years when I'm not a Second Year nor do I care about this festival? Plus I just get done with Midterms.

"Under normal circumstances, you wouldn't have to." Sona then narrowed her eyes. "However, you are different. After taking a look at your records I've learnt that your number attendance is less than 60%, which means practically half the time you aren't even here."

"Hold on, why are you looking at my records? You're not a teacher or a member of staff." Shirou pointed out. "Besides what does my attendance matter?"

"It matter greatly, the mandatory attendance policy is something every student has to abide by, and if you are below the required number of attendance you'll have to repeat the year." Sona told him, narrowing her eyes. "Thus you can make up for it with extra credit, like helping with the festival."

"Wait, if extra credit is all I need then there are other options." Shirou realized, confused. "Why has it already been decided that I have to help with the festival?"

Sona fixed her glasses. "Because right now we are shorthanded and could have trouble finishing on schedule, so I recommended the proposal of having you assist."

"What?" Shirou said, incredulously. "I don't even get to choose, you just decided for yourself?"

"No, I recommended it, the school staff made the decision." Sona corrected. "And with your history of causing trouble taken to account, they thought this could double as a punishment."

"Tch." Shirou clicked his tongue. "Assholes always got it out for me."

"Anyways, take a seat and wait. Once I'm finished with my paperwork I'll inform you of your first assignment." Sona instructed him.

Shirou not happy about it sat down on an empty chair.

 _"My first impression of Shirou Tsukiharu was not a positive on."_ Sona thought, narrating her flashback. _"He seemed simple to understand, a disruptive troublemaker who had no regard for this School or academics in general. He constantly skipped School and was known for violence, his grades were slightly above the average among First-Years but he seemed to have no motivation to aim higher, the kind of person I disliked the most. That's what I initially thought."_

While Sona was taking care of the documents Shirou was getting bored of just sitting there, so he got up and walked around. Shortly after getting up from his seat he saw over on one of the tables was a Chessboard with all the pieces set up.

"Ah cool, a Chessboard." Shirou went over to it. "You like Chess too?"

Sona looked up from her work. "You play Chess?" She asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I played all the time when I was a kid." Shirou said, picking up a piece. "And I play with my Sister all the time, though the in loss ratio is 3/95 in her favour."

"I see. Well, Chess is a game I grew up playing." Sona told him, fixing her glasses. "And as far as I can remember, I've never lost."

"Interesting, want to put that to the test?" Shirou challenged her, with a smirk.

Sona suddenly felt the aura around Shirou was different, instead of the look of boredom belonging to a simple Delinquent he now had the look of someone else, someone who radiated pure self-confidence in both himself and his capabilities.

Though Sona put those thoughts away and responded to him. "What are you saying?"

"How about playing a game with me?" Shirou clarified. "Since you've never lost, I want to see how good you are."

"Did you forget? I have to work on the festival." Sona reminded him. "And we're shorthanded."

"Then let's make a wager." Shirou offered. "If I don't win I'll work hard enough that we'll finish ahead of schedule."

Sona's eyes widened then she narrowed them. "Are you being serious?"

"I wouldn't offer if I wasn't." Shirou replied.

"Are you capable of actually doing so?"

"Don't underestimate my capabilities."

Even though she wasn't 100% convinced, his confidence at least made her believe he could follow through to enough extent that they would finish preparation on schedule. So Sona made her decision.

"Very well then." Sona agreed to his challenge. "Let's play."

They both went back to Sona's desk and placed the Chessboard in front of them. Shirou sat across from her, Shirou was using the Black pieces and Sona was using the White pieces, therefore Sona went first.

TAP!

After she moved her first piece, Shirou immediately followed by moving his.

TAP!

The game just continued from there.

TAP!

 _"From his behaviour and because he made his first move without stopping to strategize, I assumed his level was sub-par and thus I believe it would be a quick victory."_ Sona narrated, through the game. _"But I was wrong, he seemed to have no trouble following up on my moves and whenever I thought I trapped him, he reversed it like it was easy. I never thought a Human High School student in his First-Year could play against me so evenly, it was a surprise."_

TAP!

"I know not of defeat." Shirou brought up, after moving a piece.

TAP!

"What? Are you being sarcastic?" Sona questioned, moving her piece.

TAP!

"No, it was just a random thought." Shirou replied, moving his piece. "But it's not a lie, for as long as I can remember I've never lost or more as, I've never let myself lose, not when it really counts anyway."

TAP!

"That's a pretty foreboding way to look at things." Sona noted, moving her piece. "And what pray tell makes something "count" enough for you to take it seriously?"

"A lot of things, like giving myself a challenge. Or when I really want to beat someone because they're looking down on me." Shirou answered, before looking Sona in the eye. "Like you for example."

Sona felt a little surprise by his words but didn't show it. "What does that mean?"

TAP!

"You don't have to hide it, I could tell what you were thinking." Shirou told her while moving a piece. "You thought that because I don't think before moving a piece and since I'm a Delinquent, you could beat me easily, didn't you?"

Now Sona was really surprised by the way he said it, it was as if he said exactly what she was thinking word for word. "How did you know that?"

"It's not hard to figure out really." Shirou told him. "I could tell from your personality, You're actually a pretty open person."

"And are saying I'm easy to read?" Sona questioned, narrowing her eyes.

"Right now you are." Shirou answered. "Chess is a game where whoever sets the pace first controls the flow of the game, that's why the beginning is the most important part because you weren't taking this seriously you didn't worry about that let me pull the rug from under you and set the pace myself." He explained. "But you pushed back and now we have an equal number of pieces, so the game could still go to either of us."

TAP!

"You're surprising shrewd." Sona noticed with a little interest while moving a piece. "But do you believe that'll be enough for you to beat me?"

TAP!

"Who knows, but I am sure I won't lose." Shirou answered, sure of himself, while moving a piece. "In fact, I say you won't be able to capture my King."

"Is that so?" Sona asked, now feeling a little excited by the challenge. "Let's see if you can stop me."

Sona didn't show much emotion simply because she chose not to, acting as a stoic Council President was the most effective way to present herself as a serious authority figure that could enforce order and command respect. But one thing she couldn't hide was the fact that she enjoyed testing her intellect against others and Chess was her favourite way of doing so. And playing against someone where the outcome wasn't clear was something that rarely happened for her, but she always enjoyed it when it did.

TAP!

The game continued back and forth, Sona kept making her moves afterthought and planning, while Shirou was making his moves the same as usual, he would just take a piece and move it forward. Though that didn't mean he wasn't thinking, it's just that he's able to decide what move to make almost immediately, since he's played against a higher level Chess player so often he's able to play more relaxed than others.

Before long the game was near its end. Both of them had lost their Knights, Rooks, Bishops, Queens and most of their Pawns. Sona had knocked over Shirou's Rook with last remaining Pawn and thus Shirou had only his King left. Sona assumed she could win now, but after Shirou his King she noticed something. Her Pawn was directly above Shirou's King and only a few squares apart, that's when she realized something.

 _"I'm trapped."_ Sona thought, looking over the board. _"He used his Rook as bait to lure my Pawn in front of his King, and my own King is too far away to block his so no matter what I do I'll lose my Pawn. And if the only pieces left on the board are Kings then I can't possibly Checkmate him and the game ends."_ She understood, somewhat. impressed. _"He got me, he couldn't think of a way to win with that line-up so instead he forced a situation where it was impossible for me to capture his King."_

 _(In fact, I say you won't be able to capture my King.)_

She smiled. _"Well played."_

Seeing her smile Shirou could tell she figured it out and they both then looked up at each other.

"A tie?" Shirou offered.

"So it would seem." Sona nodded.

"Gotta say though that was a close one." Shirou admitted. "I didn't think it'd be that close with any but my Sister."

"I've been curious about that actually." Sona brought up. "Is your Sister some kind of Chess master?"

"You could say that, but not just Chess. Since she doesn't go to School she has a lot of free time, one of her favourite pass times is playing games, including strategy games." Shirou answered her. "After planning for so long all the time, naturally she became an expert at them. When we first played Chess I couldn't keep up at all, though I did a little better each time, and after 90 tries I finally improved enough to be able to beat her. And since your skill is around the same level I just treated it like a game against her."

 _"That's why his moves were so relaxed and yet well played."_ Sona realized. _"Since he's used to playing against an expert he's seen high-level tactics and how to reverse them. But if that's true then that means that his Sister must be as good a player as me."_ She thought, not knowing what to think. _"I almost can't believe a Human that young exists in this town."_

"Now I have a question for you." Shirou brought up. "Just out of curiosity, do you dream of running a School?"

Sona blinked, surprised. "What makes you say that?"

"A lot of things, for one even though you're only the Student Council President, some people say you have more authority than some of the faculty. And you take grades really seriously to the point where anyone who joins the Council needs to raise their grades enough to be an honor student." Shirou listed. "And you even take the time to make sure events like these get done perfectly, which is why you conscripted me."

"Doesn't that just mean I take my position very seriously?" Sona questioned, curious to hear his response.

"For some people, it would. But it's not your actions I've noticed, it's your personality." Shirou corrected her. "You play the role of a stoic Ice Queen president, but that's just to assert yourself so people will respect your authority but only to extent of a school atmosphere, and even though try to enforce the rules be strict about it, it's just because you want to make the school more peaceful."

"How did you come up with all that?" Sona asked, wondering how he knew this.

Shirou lifts up her documents. "Even though it's your job to plan out the festival, you don't have to manage it and run the preparation completely, no one would blame you if it wasn't perfect, yet you go to a lot of trouble to make sure it is, just by that I can tell you actually really love this school itself." He told her. "Plus you act like running this school is somehow your responsibility despite being a student. So that probably means one day you want to run this or some other school, at least that's how I see it."

 _"I was both shocked and amazed, it was as if he had completely seen through everything about me."_ Sona narrated. _"His skill in Chess challenging mine was already impressive enough, but more than that was his insight, it was so deep it felt like he was reading my mind. I never felt so exposed before and to think the cause was an Underclassmen I had just meet less than an hour ago. All I could say was; all traces of the troublemaker who was simple to understand was no longer there, he felt completely different from when he first walked in."_

Sona fixed her glasses. "It's true, I do hope to one day head a school of my own. In fact, that's been my dream for after I graduate." She admitted. But I must know, how were you able to read me like that?"

"It's actually not hard to know what others are thinking." Shirou told her, smirking. "All you need is to pay attention to small details and put the pieces together."

Somehow that answered satisfied her. "It seems there's more to you than I first thought, you aren't an ordinary student."

"Hmph, the word ordinary is foreign to me." Shirou exclaimed, before standing up. "Now then, we should get started."

"Get started on what?" Sona asked, confused.

"The cultural festival." Shirou reminded her as if it was obvious. "You're almost done with the paperwork right? So hurry up and tell me where I should help out with. After all, I need to make sure we finish ahead of schedule."

"What? But the game was a tie." Sona reminded him.

"Yeah, but I said if I don't win, and a tie isn't a win." Shirou reminded her. "I always keep my promise, so let's get on with it."

Sona processed his words, then smiled. "Very well then."

 _"After that, the preparations were finished ahead of schedule just as he promised."_ Sona narrated, ending the flashback. _"And with his assistance, that year's cultural festival became a bigger success than even lasts year's."_

* * *

Sona was looking up, thinking back to that day and feeling relaxed. _"It wasn't that long ago, yet somehow it feels like the distant past."_

"You alright?" Shirou asked. "You've been quiet for a few minutes now."

"I was just thinking." Sona looked at him. "This is the first time we've been alone together since the day we met."

"Hey, you're right." Shirou noticed. "That reminds me, we never settled that game did we? We should play again sometime, you know after everything quiets down."

"Yes, I'd look forward to playing against you again." Sona accepted. "But I was just remembering, back then it was me and now my Onee-Sama. And from what Rias told me, you also had a meaningful talk with her and some of her Peerage members. It's like you have some kind of gift for knowing what others are thinking."

Shirou shrugged. "Maybe, or maybe all you guys are easy to figure out." He then stood up. "Well, I've had my fun, I better head back."

"I understand." Sona stood up as well. "I also have duties to attend to." She then looked at him one more time. "Thanks for the talk."

"It's what I do girl." Shirou said, before walking off.

* * *

A few minutes later Shirou was walking around outside the Main School building walking past others and wondering where to go next.

"Hey, Shirou!"

Hearing the voice that belonged to Ren, Shirou looked to the side to see Ren, along with Aika, Asia and Saito standing together by the school gate. So Shirou went over to them.

"What are you guys doing together?" Shirou asked.

"Well, I was planning on skipping the rest of the day. I was planning on finding you to see if you wanted to come with, then I ran into Aika." Ren explained.

"And since he was leaving I thought I might be fun." Aika added. "So I invited myself and Asia."

"Then why's he here?" Shirou asked, pointing to Saito.

"I was walking by and she invited me." Saito pointed to Asia.

"I thought it'd be more fun if there were more of us." Asia reasoned.

"Where's Mika?" Shirou asked Ren.

"She went back to the club room with Akeno." Ren told him.

"Well, I've got nothing going on here." Shirou shrugged. "Might as well leave."

"True, none of us have a reason to stay." Aika agreed. "None of you guys has parents and mine are away, so this day is just chore."

"Well then, let's go." Ren exclaimed.

And so the group all walked off leaving the school grounds.

"Let's head downtown." Saito suggested. "There'll be stuff there that's fun."

"Since when are you the boss?" Shirou asked rhetorically. "Let's head uptown, that's a better spot."

"Men. Must you two turn everything into a pissing contest?" Aika taunted, grinning.

[Shut up.] They both barked.

"How do you have a contest in going to the bathroom?" Asia asked, innocently.

"Don't ask." Ren brushed off her question.

* * *

It was now nighttime and Shirou and Asia had just arrived home.

"Hey, we're back." Shirou announced.

Mika came up to the door to greet them. "Good, you're here."

"Huh, is something wrong?" Asia asked.

"No, not that." Mika dismissed her concern. "It's just that someone is waiting for you."

After saying that Mika led the two of them into the living room and sitting there on the couch was Rias.

"Rias?" Shirou addressed. "What are you doing here?"

"Good, you two are here." Rias addressed them, standing up. "There's something I need to tell all of you."

"I thought you were spending the night with your family." Asia brought up.

After hearing that Rias' face started to blush red. "Please don't remind me of that."

"Why, was it bad?" Mika asked.

"It was terrible! That is… A Hell, the likes of which hasn't been seen before...…" She exclaimed while shaking her whole body with embarrassment, blushing to the maximum limit. "I just kept wishing it would end, until I couldn't take it anymore."

"Drama Queen." Shirou commented.

"Anyways that's not what I came to tell you." Rias changed the topic. "After speaking with my Brother I've given an order; the time has come to release the other Bishop."

* * *

The next day after school.

Everyone from the club was gathered and was standing on the ground floor of the Old School building's room that had been made the "Sealed classroom". The old room at the end of the hallway sealed by police tap and said "Do Not Enter" on the door, along with tape with "KEEP OUT" written on was heavily pasted with magical seals carved on.

Even from the outside, this room was securely closed so they couldn't see inside the room. What was it used for, the explanation was without exception but… It seemed according to the conversation, that the other Bishop was here.

The other Bishop. For a long time, it was a mystery club member for Shirou, Mika and Asia. Likewise, except for newcomer Xenovia, the rest of the members knew about it.

He existed before the four of them became Devils but, due to various circumstances, he couldn't participate in the Rating Game between the Phenex household and the battle against Kokabiel.

"All this time, I never knew we had another Bishop." Xenovia brought up.

"Well, Rias only mention them once." Mika told her. "That was when I and Asia were first reincarnated, and besides existing, we don't know anything about them."

"Which begs the question; Why are we unsealing it all of a sudden?" Shirou questioned. "For that matter; why are they sealed in the first place?"

"In the past, his ability was regarded as dangerous, and because I wasn't able to completely control him with her powers, so my Brother and higher-ups ordered him to be sealed away he was ordered to be sealed indefinitely." Rias explained. "However, last night, Onii-Sama told me that I received a high evaluation by the 4 Maous, the Great King Bael household, the Archduke Agares household, and the Great Devils due to my accomplishments with the House of Phenex and the fight against Kokabiel. Since I'm stronger now, the sealing condition of the other Bishop has been lifted since I might be able to control him now."

"What do they mean your accomplishments? I'm the one who beat those guys." Shirou pointed out, irked.

"Yeah and when you really thinking about it, you really didn't do anything in either of those fights, Rias." Mika added.

"Unfortunately, that's the way it goes in the Underworld." Kiba told them. "It's quite common for accomplishments of servants to be credited to the King. So the stronger we get and the battles we win, those automatically become a higher evaluation for the Chief considering she leads us."

"And more than that, in a Peerages structure the King is the cornerstone." Akeno added. "We're the Rias Gremory Peerage and thus the Underworld is only aware of Rias Gremory, and that doesn't extend to the rest of us as were only known as her servants, for now. Thus the only one who gains praises is the King."

"How does that makes?" Shirou objected. "Who in their right mind would break there back trying to accomplish something big knowing that credit will go to someone else?"

"It's not all bad." Rias assured him. "Even if the higher-ups don't recognize the fates of a servant, they still acknowledge them if said Devil demonstrates abilities that can't be ignored, that's how Low-Class Devils gain higher ranks, and no one could possibly ignore your strength at this point."

"She's right, you dominating the House of Phenex is on video and you've got a Balance Breaker now." Mika reminded him. "Please everyone saw you beat the heir of the Glasya-Labolas family like a drum back at the after-party." She remembered, with a hint of laughter.

Shirou sighed. "Fine, I guess that's as good as it's going to get."

"Moving on, it's family time for you all to meet our other Bishop." Rias turned back to the door. "The kid is over here. All-day, that Bishop lives here. For the time being, his powers are loosened deep in the night, and if it's just in the old building, he can exit the room, but the kid inside refuses to do that."

Was what Rias said. For some reason, she knocked on the door and then started expanding her magic circle. She started to release the seal.

"So, he's a Shut-in?"

Rias nodded to Shirou question while letting out a sigh herself.

Kiba removed the tape, Akeno also helped out alongside Rias in removing the seal.

"The kid inside has been the biggest earner among the servants." Akeno said, continuing as if replying to a question."Through a computer, the kid takes special contracts from humans. Frankly, it's a person who doesn't want to meet us. Those type of people negotiate in a different way and make relations differently. They solve things through the computer. In the dealings through computers, amongst the new Devil servants, this kid grabs enough numbers like those of superior rank."

"That's a thing?" Mika asked.

"Makes you wonder what kind of weirdos this guy has to deal with." Shirou noted.

"I wonder what he's like." Asia spoke, excited to meet the other Bishop.

"—Now then, I am opening the door."

The magical seals carved on the door also disappeared, it became a simple door. Rias opened the door—.

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

—.

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. First off before you ask about the scuffle between Shirou and Vali, think about it. They are so much alike and they both want to fight more than anything, I feel like it would just be weird and out of character for both of them to not start something after meeting like that. And with the way they match up the fight was a seesaw of a battle where they both tried to take the lead and go for the kill.**

 **Now when I say Vali's power is closer to Sirzechs', I don't mean he's as strong as Sirzechs this early in the story, that comes later. I mean his magic reserves are as big as his because of his bloodline which I won't mention for anyone who doesn't already know. Plus he's not as skilled as Shirou but is much faster than him because of his Gear, this I made him someone who favours speed over style outside of his armor since he never fought outside his armor in the canon I figured this would make the most sense.**

 **As for Shirou, the reason I established him as the most talented Red Dragon Emperor is because he basically is. He's a Hero's descendant which is something no previous wielder has ever been, plus Issei was history's least talented so it works. And if you remember in Volume 9 of the LN when Issei went into the Gear and saw all the previous wielders, one of them was around his age and Ddraig said he was a real genius but got drunk on his power and got killed. So I used him as a measuring stick to rating Shirou's potential.**

 **Now for the moments with Shirou and Sona, ever since I first introduced Sona in this story I wanted to show a flashback on how they meet, even though they said they meet when Shirou helped her with the cultural festival I wanted to go more in-depth with it and thus I added the Chess game, for those who find it weird that Shirou's that good at Chess, remember when he was first reincarnated and Rias explained the Evil Pieces, Shirou said he played Chess with Mika 100 times and only won four of those times. Which also means he beat a Chess master four times, so to me it makes sense.**

 **And I based Shirou's meaningful talk with Sona to be like that with Rias and the others, the longer the conversation goes on the more he gets a better read on your personality than he can get a good grasp on what you're thinking almost like he can read your mind and forms a deeper connection with said person. Since they got along so when Sona first appeared in the story I felt it would make sense they had a moment like this so I wrote it.**

 **If I'm being honest with you I wanted to cover more in this chapter and reach the part where we meet Michael but unfortunately, that would take too long and so I had to stop it here. Next chapter will take a while too but hopefully, this will be a good place to end of this year. But still though, I really appreciate you all enjoying the story this past year. Let's hope next year will be a greater one.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more then be sure to leave a review, if you like the story than click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**

 **Merry Christmas To All And To All A Good Night.**


	27. Looking Back And Moving Forward

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. This will be the first chapter of the New Year, so I made it long. This chapter will have a lot of content in it as it will feature both the introduction of Gasper and his backstory. As well as Akeno's backstory and Shirou doing his thing in lifting both of their broken spirits. It will also include him meeting Michael and receiving Ascalon. There will also be a lot of dialogue and a few things I added for this story. Enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 ** _DRAGON SHOT_** Attack names.

( _Shirou_ ) Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Looking Back And Moving Forward**

* * *

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

An outrageously high scream emitted from inside. Rias wasn't even surprised, rather while sighing, entered alongside Akeno.

"Good day to you. It's nice to see you all energetic." She said to whoever made the scream.

"W-W-Whyyyyyyyy?"

The exchange happening inside was heard. Judging from the voice, it could have been a Middle School kid but… It was either a girl or was it a young boy. It was hard to say for sure right now. Though it was easy to say that the person was extremely confused.

"Ara, Ara, the seal got removed, you know? You are able to go out now. Now, let's all go out together?"

Akeno informed the person inside with a gentle tone as if to comfort them. However.

"Noooooooooooooooooo! This place is gooooooooooood! I don't want to go outside! I don't want to meet peopleeeeeee!"

Shirou groaned. "I can already tell I'm not going to like this."

"Yeah but, on some levels, I can kinda understand." Mika shrugged.

Asia tilted her head confused. Xenovia also let out a questioning look. Only Kiba and Koneko understood the circumstances. In fact, Kiba was smiling bitterly and Koneko was letting out a sigh.

Deciding to see for themselves, the rest of the club walked in the room as well. Walking in just a bit, they took a look around.

The curtains were tightly shut close. Dim. The room was decorated in an unexpectedly cute manner, it looked like a girl's room. Stuffed dolls were present as well. It seemed normal enough except for the coffin. There was a single coffin present in one corner that seemed to be used in funerals abroad.

Rias and Akeno were in the interior. Meaning the Bishop was present past them.

Approaching further, the one present there was a bishoujo with noble looks with hair styled in a short bob-cut with several small fringes over the forehead, Platinum blonde hair and pink-violet eyes which looked like those of a doll, pale-white skin and her ears were pointed at the edges. Sitting down on the floor, with a pose that looked as if wanting to escape from Rias and Akeno. She was shaking a lot.

She was also dressed in Kuoh Academy's girl's uniform.

"That's the Bishop?" Shirou asked, raising a brow.

"A girl, blonde and not to mention a foreigner." Mika listed. "Like Asia."

After saying that, Rias turned her head sideways.

"Appearance-wise, this child looks like a girl but without a doubt, he is a boy."

.

.

.

An awkward silence filled the air after hearing something neither of them expected. Needing more information Shirou asked.

"Then what's with the drag?"

"He has a hobby of dressing in female clothes." Akeno said that calmly.

"Of course he does." Shirou responded drily, almost like he expected as much. "Just what we've come to expect from this freak-show of a Peerage."

"Now hold on a second." Mika stepped back and placed her hands together like a camera. First looking at Rias. "An Exhibitionist." Then Akeno. "A Sadist." Then Asia. "Moe." Then Koneko. "Jail-bait plus Furry." Then Xenovia. "Guilty Pleasure." Then Kiba. "Yaoi." She then gestured to herself. "Incest." And finally the new Bishop. "And now a Trap. Now, all we need is a Teacher and we'll have every fetish you could ever want."

Koneko gave her a cold stare.

"…Talking about vulgar words is prohibited."

"Aw, is someone upset about being called jail-bait." Mika patronized her.

"Enough." Shirou broke them apart. "Let's get back to the main topic. You."

"Eeeeeeeeeeek! I am sorry, I am sorryyyyyyyyyyy!"

The platinum-haired girl's clothed guy let out a shriek due to his voice.

"You should be." Shirou told him, clearly disgusted by his appearance. "Why are you dressed in drag?"

"B-B-B-Because, girl's clothes are super cute."

"Do I look like someone who cares about what's cute?"

The scowl on Shirou's face clearly said no. Though that only scarred the kid more.

"B-B-B-By the way, who is this person?"

The girl's clothed boy asked Rias. Rias said it while pointing to Shirou, Mika, Asia and Xenovia.

"These are new servants who came while you were here. The Pawn; Shirou Tsukiharu, The Knight; Xenovia, The Rook; Mika Tsukiharu and like you, the Bishop; Asia Argento."

Asia and Xenovia greeted him and Mika just waved because they were introduced but, girl's clothed boy only fearfully said.

"Eeeeek, the members increased by a lot!"

"Please, can we go out? Okay? It's all right for you not to be sealed any more, you know?"

Rias said it gently but—

"Noooooooo! For me the outside world is impossibleeeeeeee! I am scared! I am scared of the outside! In any case, even if I go outside it would only cause trouble for otherssssss!"

Hearing his constant shrieking and whining made Shirou lose whatever little patience he had left.

"God Shut the Hell up. Why are you such a whiny little bitch?"

"It is started to grate on my nerves."

Xenovia agreed with Shirou's statement. Though Asia stepped forward.

"Now, now, be nice. Let's try to be a bit more understanding of Bishop-san."

Asia tried walking up to him. It was at that moment where she got to close him.

"Eeeeeek!"

FLASH!

Along with the cross-dressing boy's scream, the scenery in front of everyone became white—

Suddenly as though he teleported in an instant, the boy who should have been in the coffin wasn't there then. Looking at it, he was shaking in one corner of the room. Which made no sense to anyone who was just meeting him.

"This is strange. Something in this moment…..."

"…..It is that certain something happened."

"…But I.….. I can't even begin to guess what."

Asia, Xenovia and Mika were surprised by the mysterious phenomenon, though Shirou stayed silent, the rest of the members were only letting out sighs. Kiba and the others, of course, knew about it.

"Don't get angry! Don't get angry! Please don't hit meeeeeeeee!"

As usual, the girl's clothed boy was just shouting. What did this guy do.

Noticing their confusing doubt Akeno explained.

"That child possesses a Sacred Gear that when he's excited, the time of everything in his field of vision can be stopped for a fixed interval of time."

"Time stoppage? Guess that's why everyone said he was dangerous. Especially when the user himself is as harmless as a baby butterfly."

Shirou noted while Akeno continued.

"Because he can't control his Sacred Gear, by the orders of the Archduke and the Devil King, Sirzechs-sama, he was sealed."

Rias hugged girl's clothed boy from behind and said to them.

"This boy is Gasper Vladi. He's my Bishop. For the time being, he's Kuoh Academy's First-Year. Also, before being reincarnated he was half Human, half Vampire."

"A Vampire?"

"A Bloodsucker?"

"A mosquito?"

Mika and Xenovia exclaimed, surprised for different reasons. Though after Shirou called him a mosquito everyone just silently stared at him. Which made him scowl at all of them.

"Oh get off it, you know it's true."

* * *

After getting Gasper to come out of his room, the club all went back to the club room. Rias sat behind her desk and Akeno stood beside her, while Gasper stood before the group. Shirou, Asia and Mika sat on one couch while Kiba and Xenovia sat on the other. Koneko sat on Shirou's lap.

"Forbidden Balor View?"

Rias nodded to Asia's question.

"Yes. That's the name of the Sacred Gear Gasper possesses. It's very powerful."

"To stop time, that power's as old as time itself, no pun intended." Mika brought up. "Still, I had a feeling we'd run into someone with that power eventually. It always shows up in the supernatural."

"Maybe, but it doesn't hold a candle to my Boosted Gear."

Upon his words, Rias responds.

"Yes, you do have a better handle on your powers. And there lies the problem with Gasper's power, the fact is that he's not able to handle it. Because of that Gasper had been sealed till now. Unconsciously activating his Sacred Gear was seen as a problem."

"But wait, I thought Devils could only reincarnate someone if the Devil in question is strong enough to control that person's power. Or compensate by using multiple pieces, like how you used all your Pawn pieces on me." Shirou reminded her. "If this fruit is so strong, how'd you reincarnate him with just one piece?"

"That's because I used a Mutation piece." Rias answered.

"Mutation… Piece?"

Kiba answered Shirou's question.

"It's different from the usual Evil piece, bodies that clearly require more than one piece to be reincarnated can be reincarnated with a single piece, it's a piece that can make such a phenomenon occur."

"The Chief possessed that piece."

Is what Akeno said. Kiba continues further.

"Usually, for High-Class Devils, 1 in 10 Devils possesses a single piece. It's an irregularity born when the Evil piece system was created, it's kind of like a bug but it seems like it was kept for fun. Gasper-Kun is the one who used that piece."

"So you were lucky and hit the jackpot. Thus you got Gasper."

Shirou summarized Rias nodded meaning she agreed before continuing.

"The problem is Gasper's ability."

"What do you mean?"

"He possesses a rare ability and it seems his Sacred Gear's power increases when he's unconscious. Maybe because of that, every day his power is increasing. From the previous conversation we can say, in the future, there's a possibility he may attain Balance Breaker."

Shirou raised a brow. _"Balance Breaker? He can already stop time, what would a Balance Breaker be like?"_

Maybe because she understood from the expression on Shirou's face, Rias also put her hand on her forehead with a troubled face.

"Yes. It's a critical situation. However, because my evaluation was accepted, it seems I was judged that I may be able to control Gasper now by the people that evaluated me. Maybe because Shirou and Yuuto attained Balance Breaker."

"But sadly for you, they awakened their Balance Breakers on their own without you being a factor, so those evaluations were made because those people had the wrong idea and thought you were more involved than you actually were." Mika summarized while pretending to be sympathetic. "Oh, poor Princess Rias having to live up to everyone's expectations but not knowing how."

Rias frowned at her. "I feel bad enough without your mockery."

"The main problem here is the mosquito kid."

FLASH!

Suddenly he was gone again and there was a muffling sound in the corner of the room. They looked to see a trembling cardboard box that Gasper was clearly hiding inside. "I don't like it when you guys talk about me like I'm not here. Why can't you just ignore that I'm alive like usual?"

"I wish we could ignore you."

Shirou told him, while Rias explained.

"Judging by magical ability, maybe after Mika, Shirou and then Akeno, he would be next. Even though I say half Vampire, he's from a Pure-Blooded Vampire family with a good lineage and has a powerful Sacred Gear because of his Human half. He's well endowed with the abilities of Vampires, and he excels in Human magic wielded by wizards as well. If not so, then he probably wouldn't have been made a Bishop with just one Evil piece."

"And I'm guessing since he's half Human, he can survive in the sun."

"Actually it's for a different possess the blood of a special Vampire known as Day-walker which can move in the day, so there's no problem. However, he may dislike it."

However, Gasper cried out.

"I hate daylighttt! It's better if the sun disappeareeeeeed!"

"He's right though, the sun should disappear." Mika chimed in.

"Don't encourage him!" Shirou scolded her, before looking towards Gasper. "And anyway why you hiding in a box, you know we can still see you right?"

"No! I am fine inside this cardboard box! The air and light of the outside are a natural enemy to meeeee! Please let me remain a boy who lives in a cardboard boooooox!"

Hearing Gasper's cry, Shirou just became fed up at this point.

"And let me guess, he doesn't drink blood either."

Rias responded to his question. A little fed up herself by now.

"Since he's a half Vampire, he doesn't thirst for blood as often. If you supply the blood for him once every 10 days then there's no problem. Though it seems he originally didn't like drinking blood."

"I hate blooooood! I hate fish tooooooo! I hate liver as welllllll!"

"Okay, how can there possibly be a Vampire that hates blood!?" Mika snapped. "That's literally the thing that makes you a Vampire!"

"…A good-for-nothing vampire." Koneko spews out those words without mercy.

"Uwaaaaaaah! Koneko-chan is a meanieeee!"

"He's got a powerful Sacred Gear, a strong bloodline and is free from most of the weaknesses other Vampires have." Shirou listed. "On paper, he'd be a gem among his peers but in reality, all that stuff is useless because the holder is just some crybaby wimp."

"A Vampire that can't even drink blood is a joke." Mika added.

"Uwaaaaaaah! You're all meanieeees!"

Through Gasper's moaning, Rias got up from her seat.

"For the time being, till I come back, Shirou, Asia, Mika, Koneko, Xenovia, I'll leave Gasper's training to you. Akeno and I will be going to the meeting place for the top of the Three Factions. And Yuuto, it seems Onii-sama wants to hear in detail about your Balance Breaker so you should accompany us."

"Yes, Chief." Kiba stood up when his name was called.

"Sure, why not? Just dump the kid on us." Shirou sarcastically replied, irked.

"Gasper-Kun, you should start getting used to the outside, you know?"

Akeno speaks across the cardboard box.

"Akeno Onee-samaaaaaaa! Please don't say stuff like thaaaaaaaat"

"Ara, Ara, that's troubling. Everyone, we'll leave it to you."

"Yeah. Then, shall I thoroughly discipline him? A weak man is no good. And also I wanted to face off with a Vampire since childhood. Leave his treatment to me." With that Xenovia pulled on to the rope attached to Gasper's Cardboard box.

"Eeeeeeeeek! N-N-N-No way, I don't want to fight against the user of the Holy Sword Durrandaaaaal! I-I'll be destroyeeeeed!"

"Don't scream, Gasper. If you like, shall I prepare a cross and Holy water, and also attack you with garlic?"

"Eeeeeeeeeek! Garlic, noooooooooo!"

"…This can only end horribly." Koneko noted.

Shirou stroked the top of her head like he would a cat.

"I second that motion."

"Nya."

Koneko purred, enjoying the treatment Shirou was giving her.

* * *

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Hey, start running!" Xenovia exclaimed as they were outside and she was chasing Gasper—Who was crying—Around while carrying Durandal in a small open space behind the building. As they were approaching the evening. The others were just standing in the sidelines watching the whole fiasco. "If you're a Day-walker then you should be able to run in the day."

"Eeeeeeek! Don't chase me while swinging the Durandaaaaaaal!"

"Okay, who's the idiot who thought it was a good idea to let Xenovia take the lead." Shirou questioned.

"The idiot was Xenovia herself." Mika informed him.

"Even though it was an honor to have met the Bishop-san just like me, we haven't even properly seen each other's faces…..." Asia seemed regretful. She's also a bit tearful.

At home last night she kept saying it a lot 'I want to meet the other Bishop-san', she was anticipating her meeting. Even though it's their long-awaited encounter, since he's a max level Human-hater and a complete shut-in, it can't be helped.

After she was done with him, Xenovia stopped chasing Gasper. Gasper sat down against a tree in a feminine position, looking like he was going to cry again. "I don't understand why you have to be so mean to me?" He whimpered.

"A healthy mind lives in a healthy body." Xenovia told him as she stood in front of Gasper. Still having Durandal out. "Trust me, you won't think I'm so mean when you're stronger." She then smirked, feeling proud of herself.

"Trial by fire." Mika commented. "She's trying to force the results."

"Yeah, but sadly that'll never work when training a lady-boy." Shirou added, unimpressed.

"I can't do this anymore!" Gasper sobbed. "What you say doesn't matter if my legs won't work!"

Koneko reached into her pocket and pulled something out as she approached him. "…Gya-kun." Gasper looked up at her only to see what she pulled out was some garlic. "If you eat garlic, you'll become healthy."

Gasper quickly freaked out and ran away from her. "Nooooooo! Koneko-chan is bullying meeeeeee!" He screamed

Now Koneko was chasing him in the same manner Xenovia was a moment ago. And the others were still just watching.

"Wait, was she just carrying that garlic around this whole time?" Shirou questioned, finding it odd. "Does that mean she was planning to do this from the start."

"Looks like Koneko enjoys messing with others, namely Gasper." Mika figured.

"Man you guys know how to make a racket."

The three of them looked to the side the see the Pawn of the Sitri Peerage, Takeru Saito appeared at the scene.

"Saito-san?" Asia addressed him. "Why are you here?"

Saito shrugged tiredly. "Sona said we had to make the school look good for the leaders of the Three Faction who are coming for the Summit. And so she wanted me to do some gardening around the flower bed. Obviously I'd never do that so I ditched."

"While that certainly sounds like something you'd do, that doesn't explain why you're here." Shirou reminded him.

"I just wanted to find something interesting to do, then I heard Rias finally unsealed her big bad Bishop. So I wanted to see it for myself."

"Well take a look."

When Koneko was finally done chasing Gasper, he was on the ground again, crying. When Saito saw him, any expectation he had were replaced by disappointment.

"You gotta be kidding me, the Bishop's a little girl?"

"So it would appear, but sadly the family jewels have not been stolen."

After Shirou corrected him, Saito just looked more irked.

"Of course, what else could you expect from the Gremory freak-show Peerage?"

Asia whispered to Mika. "Isn't that very similar to what Shirou-san said earlier?"

Mika grinned and nodded. "It's a guy thing, they're just close like that."

Suddenly there was some ruffling sounds coming from the forest behind them and quiet footsteps could be heard. "Heh. The servants of Maou's' family's Devils are playing over here." Turning in the direction of the voice, everyone saw an evil-looking male wearing a yukata who went by the name of Azazel. "Yo, Red Dragon Emperor. It's been some time since that night." Azazel greeted him, with a pleasant smirk.

"Hey big guy, long time." Shirou gave him the same expression. "Or do you prefer Azazel?"

Xenovia had her Sword ready to strike. Maybe because she sensed the atmosphere, Koneko raised her fists and brought out her Cat-ears and tail. Asia hid behind Shirou, though Shirou and Mika didn't really seem concerned. Saito, while surprised brought out the face of a deformed lizard on his right hand. It's Saito's Sacred Gear, Delete Field. However, Saito mainly summoned his Gear out of a precaution rather than an urgency like the rest.

"Hey Tsukiharu, is this guy really Azazel?"

"That's him alright. I couldn't possibly mistake that hair-style."

Azazel laughed at that remark. "Really? That's how you remember me?"

Maybe because of Shirou's lack of seriousness in his response, Saito understood the situation and kept a casual position.

Azazel smiles bitterly at the postures of the others who still wanted to fight. Let alone thirst for blood, he didn't even feel let out the presence of him trying to fight a battle.

"I don't feel like fighting. Hey, thaw your postures, Low-Class Devil." He advised them. "You should somehow know that even with the bunch gathered here, you wouldn't win against me, right? Though the Welsh Dragon might be able to scratch me on a good day, even I don't plan on bullying Low-Class Devils."

"Don't tempt me to try it." Shirou joked, before turning to the others. "Put it down, you guys." He told them like he was commanding them. "It didn't work on Kokabiel and it won't work here, besides the Summit in a few days is all about making peace so pretty soon he won't be our enemy anymore. If you guys just rush in and attack, all negotiations will go up in flames."

Hearing his reasoning and sound logic, Xenovia and Koneko lowered their fists and Sword while getting out of a fighting position.

 _"Very impressive, he easily defused the tense atmosphere and kept a cool and rational head while doing it."_ Azazel thought, summarizing Shirou's actions. _"Plus it seems they acknowledge both his authority and responded to his words as if he was their King. Not bad for a young, reincarnated Devil."_

"Moving back to you." Shirou turned back to Azazel. "What brings you here? This isn't the kind of place you can just wander in to without making a scene. So why'd you come?"

"Well, since I was taking a stroll, I came to visit the Devils place. Is the Holy-Demonic Sword wielder present? I came to see him."

Azazel answered his question. Though Shirou informed him with a shrug.

"Yeah, you're too late. Sirzechs also took an interest in that Sword and so he called him over. He left with Rias a few minutes ago, so you just missed him."

"….Seriously. I see, so the Holy-Demonic Sword user isn't present. This is boring."

While scratching his head, Azazel approaches. There's no hostility at all.

Azazel points to a certain tree.

"The Vampire hiding over there."

Gasper hiding in the tree shade panicked. While approaching Gasper, the Fallen Angel Governor General says.

"You're the possessor of the Forbidden Balor View, right? If you can't use it properly, then it will become a thing that causes harm to others. As a Support-type Sacred Gear, if you can supplement the deficient aspects, it should be fine but….. Now that I mention it, the research of Sacred Gears by Devils didn't progress much. If you invoke it via the 5 senses, if the Sacred Gear's owner's capacity is insufficient then, it will move naturally, and it will be extremely dangerous."

As if peering into Gasper's face—More like Azazel is peering into both his eyes. Gasper himself was trembling as the top head of the Fallen Angels approached him. However, no strange or evil malice from Azazel could be felt. His expression looks like he's full of interest. Maybe because the others also sensed it, they didn't know how to respond.

Azazel turns around towards us and points to Saito.

"Is that Delete Field? If you're practising, try using it. Aim it to this Vampire, if he invokes it while you're Deactivating the Sacred Gear's power for a limited amount of time, it would probably run less wildly."

On Azazel's explanation, Saito shows a complex expression as well.

".…..Wait, my Sacred Gear can make someone's power stay Deactivated for a limited amount of time, including Sacred Gears? I thought it just suppresses the power of an opponent while they're within range, one at a time….."

Hearing that, Azazel had an amazed expression.

"Seriously, it's because of this that recently the Sacred Gear owners don't try to know the power of their Sacred Gears well enough. The Delete Field holds the power of one of the Legendary Five Dragon Kings, The Prison Dragon, Vritra. Well, this was found out thanks to recent research. That thing can be aimed at any object or person, and can either create a Field where no special abilities or attacks can be activated or lock on to one person and for a time-limit depending on your strength can keep their powers turned off. If it's a short time, it's possible to use it on more than one person, and connect it to some other person or object."

"Hmm, then…. If I were to aim my power at Tsukiharu, I could not only Delete his Boosted power but stop him from powering up more?"

Saito became quiet and whispered to himself. More like, about Saito's Sacred Gear, if Azazel's explanation is true then Saito had a lot to think about.

 _"The Five Great Dragon Kings?"_ Shirou thought, looking down at his arm. _"Ddraig, is it true, one of those five is inside his Sacred Gear?"_

 **[It's as Azazel said, Vritra is certainly sealed within a Sacred Gear like myself. But unlike me he has no conscious and is unable to speak with his host, it's because his spirit along with his body was spilt until four pieces. Unless all four are gathered, he'll remain dormant.]**

 _"You know a lot about the Five Great Dragon Kings. Before today I only know of one; Tiamat. What about the rest?"_

 **[O** **riginally, in the past there were six Dragon Kings.** **In addition to Vritra, there's the one you already know of "Chaos Karma Dragon" Tiamat, the "Mischievous Dragon" Yu-Long, the "Sleeping Dragon" Midgardsormr, the "Gigantis Dragon" Fafnir and "Blaze Meteor Dragon" Tannin. Though I say that, Vritra was eliminated long ago. Those are all of them, but now in the present that six was changed into five Dragon Kings.]**

 _"Why, is one of them dead or something?"_

 **[No, they're definitely alive. You'll understand when you meet them.]**

Meanwhile, Azazel turned back to Gasper.

"In improving the Sacred Gear, the fastest way would be to drink the blood of the host of the Red Dragon. If you let a Vampire drink blood, then they'll gain power. Well, do the rest yourselves."

Shirou then clapped sarcastically.

"And that ladies and gentlemen was another brilliant lecture on Sacred Gear by the one and only Sacred Gear fanatic himself; Azazel."

Azazel smiled apologetically and raised his hand. "Sorry, I tend to ramble on sometimes when I get excited about Sacred Gears."

"It happens to the best of us." Mika consoled him.

"Thank you." Azazel addressed her. "I believe this is the first time we've spoken, Mika Tsukiharu."

Mika nodded. "I'm already up to speed on everything thanks to Big Bro, so I'll just say it. Thanks for the save back then."

"No needs for thanks, I was just repaying a debt." Azazel brushed off. "Moreover. Sorry for Vali, Our White Dragon Emperor, for coming into contact with you on his own accord. I am sure you would have been surprised, right? He's an unusual guy but he doesn't think of settling the rivalry between Red and White immediately."

"No needs for apologies, I had fun fighting him." Shirou brushed off.

Azazel chuckled a bit at that. "Heh, you two are a little alike."

The three of them just seemed to be chatting it up like old acquaintances, which given there positions made it strange and made everyone else there feel awkward. Though before long Shirou had a serious expression.

"Listen, there's something I want to ask you that's been on my mind for a while."

Azazel became serious as well once he heard his tone.

"Well, I don't mind answering any question you still might have. What is it?"

"Not right now though." Shirou told him. "I'll ask you later and at that time I want you to answer truthfully."

Azazel was quite for a second and then spoke. "Fine then, I'll tell you anything you want to know at that time." Azazel then turned around to walk away. "Until then, I'll be taking my leave." And just like that, he was gone as quickly as he came.

"So he's the Governor-General of the Fallen Angels." Xenovia muttered, still holding her massive Sword. "I do not understand him."

"To be fair, you just met him." Shirou reminded her. "As for me, I think I'll be going too. I've had enough of this." He started to leave

"Wait, what about Gasper-san?" Asia called after him.

"You guys take care of it." Shirou waved her off.

As he walked off, Mika followed after him.

"Guess I should go to." Saito decided, also leaving. "I'm gonna go do some training. There some new ideas I have about my Sacred Gear."

And with that, all those who left were gone. Leaving behind the Durandal-wielding Knight, the loli Rook and the two blonde Bishops.

"That was scary." Gasper whined, quietly.

"And just how long do you plan to sit there?" Xenovia berated him, standing in front of Gasper again, raising Durandal. "Were getting back to training, now run or else!"

"Eeeeeeek! Don't chase meeeeee!" Gasper shrieked, crying once again.

* * *

The night of the next day was approaching as the sun was setting. After Shirou and Mika left, the rest tried to help Gasper control his powers better. But apparently after failing so many times, the Vampire First-Year locked himself back in his room and crying could be heard on the other side of the door. Rias and Shirou were standing in front of the door.

"Gasper, please come out. It's my fault for pushing you into going with the others." Rias was apologizing in front of the door of Gasper's room. "I thought that if you worked with them, it may be for your benefit as well….."

{Fueeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!}

The only response she got was more crying.

"Let's head back to the club room." Shirou suggested, putting a hand behind his head. "Right now talking will only make it worse."

Rias looked reluctant but accepted. "I suppose there's no choice for now."

* * *

All the members of the Peerage were now in the club room and Shirou was just leaning by the wall.

"Man that kid is too much." Shirou complained. "I swear he's even worse now than before."

"Sorry." Asia lowered her head, regretful. "We wanted to help, but he only became more afraid."

"It's not your faults." Rias assured them. "In fact, I'm happy that you all tried so hard for his well being."

"Why didn't you try to help yesterday?" Kiba asked Shirou.

"The problem isn't trying to help, it's knowing how to help." Shirou told him. "If you don't know what's wrong and just say or do things you assume will make someone feel better, you could risk making it worse. And I know nothing about that kid."

"That's true, I suppose I should tell you why Gasper is like this." Rias got up from her seat and began. "The truth is, Gasper's Father is from a noble family of Vampires but since his Mother was a Human mistress, he wasn't Pure-Blooded. I heard Vampires hate those who are non-Pure-Bloods even more than Devils, the Vampires who scorn those who are non-Pure-Bloods, even if it's their sibling, their treatment is discriminating." She explained, sympathetic. "Gasper was bullied by his siblings since childhood, even when he went to the Human World, he was treated as a monster, he had no place he could call home."

"That's the natural outcome." Shirou told her, wistfully looking up. "Every society in the world has a standard, a status quo that everyone must fit into to. That's how people function properly and are able to fit in with one another, even with strangers. But the sad flip-side to that fact is there'll always be some people who can't fit into that status quo or to go even deeper, they want to but don't know how." He explained. "Sacred Gears have always been something ordinary people can't understand. And when you can't understand something, instinctively your first response is to fear it, reject it or even hate it. And not just Gasper, there have been plenty of others who were victimized by this sort of thing, through no fault of there own."

Shirou's words struck deep into the hearts of everyone present, in some way or another they all have seen examples of what he meant and if not then they experienced it. So they knew how it felt, how painful and frustrating it was and how terrible it must have been for Gasper.

"Yes, you're right." Rias agreed, also upset. "The sad fact is he possesses the unique abilities of Vampires and the ability as a Human that holds a special Sacred Gear, since he was born with both of them, even if he didn't want to, as he grows older, I hear his powers will also become greater. Even if he wants to become friends, sometimes by some chance his Sacred Gear gets activated, it will stop the other person."

"And that in turn breed fear in both parties involved." Shirou finished her sentence

"Hey, Shirou. How would you feel if you could stop time?"

He was asked that by Rias.

"I can only think of how useful it would be, specifically for killing."

He answered honestly. Rias continued.

"The people who were stopped by Gasper must have thought that as well. If suspicion gets born once inside the heart, then companionship became impossible, and they must have started to fear Gasper. Gasper experienced that time and time again. It's the unhappiness that is tasted by those who obtain Sacred Gears. It seems the Sacred Gears are a gift from God but… But while indeed they are powerful weapons, corresponding to that it has the power to make the user unhappy as well. He was chased out of his house as well. In any world, Gasper wasn't able to live, he was troubled by the roadside. At that time he was targeted by Vampire hunters and lost his life once. That's when I found him and brought him into my Peerage."

"But in all that time he just shut himself off from the world and could only function in his comfort zone."

Rias let out a sigh. "What a quandary….. For making this child to once again shut himself in….. I am a failure as a King."

"Not quite." Shirou argued. "This isn't the kind of thing where one person is to blame. It's just the world we live in that created this problem and no one can be expected to know how to fix it on their own."

"Maybe but….." Rias then turned to him. "What if you tried to talk to him?"

Shirou blinked. "Me?"

"Shirou. you've always been able to understand the feelings of those around you and help them confront or even overcome the things that weight on their hearts." Rias looked at him with faith and hope. "You were able to do so much for Yuuto, Koneko, Asia and even me. If anyone person can help do something I'm sure it's you."

"She's right, Shirou-Kun." Kiba encouraged him. "I don't doubt you could do more for him than any of us."

"…Senpai… You can do it." Koneko smiled at him.

"I also think Shirou-san can do something." Asia agreed with them. "You're someone who can always find a way to save another person, even Gasper."

"You've never failed before." Akeno chimed in.

Mika gave him a thumbs up. "It wouldn't hurt to try if you can't do it no one can."

Shirou just sighed. "Jeez, everyone's piling their expectations on me. It's not easy being a Superstar."

Rias came up to him and smiled while placing her hand on his. "I wouldn't be asking this of you if I didn't believe you could do it. I believe there'll be meaning in you going to see him."

"You're one high maintenance King, you know that?" Shirou told her, before thinking about it. "I've gotta tell you, for everyone else I mainly just found cracks in their psyche and helped fix them. But for Gasper, it'll be like completely breaking it down and blinding a new one from scratch."

"So you can't do it?" Rias asked, a little upset.

Shirou shook his head. "I never said that. But it's going to be a challenge." He corrected her, then Shirou walked off to the door and left to the room go back to Gasper's room.

* * *

Shirou was now standing in front of the door to the formerly sealed room that Gasper was hiding inside of. Since there was no sounds coming from the other side of the door, he could guess that Gasper stopped crying at some point and so he knocked on the door in a Shirou-like manner, meaning he kicked it.

BANG!

{Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!}

"Good, you're awake."

Shirou lazily addressed Gasper after hearing his girly shriek.

{Why did kick the door like that?!}

Gasper cried out on the other side of the door, sounding afraid.

"You don't have to lose it again, I'm not here to make you come out of your room."

{…..…Y-You're not?}

Gasper hesitated, a bit more calm now.

"No, if I was I'd of just broken the doors down." Shirou sat down on the floor, his back leaning against the door. "I've dealt with a shut-in before so I know forcing you out will just make it worse. For now, let's just talk."

{…..…Okay.}

Gasper reluctantly accepted.

"Tell me something, why is it that you're so afraid of everything?"

Gasper grew more upset when thinking of that and the tears started to come back.

{I-I….. can't help it. B-Because I stop everyone in time, I scare them. I make them dislike me, even I dislike it. I don't want to stop my f-friends and c-comrades…. Any more of having to look at the face of my cherished ones' stopped….. I-I don't want that….… I-I can't look at others without being afraid of them.}

"So it was a fear that was born from being feared and before long those thoughts became distorted until before you knew it, fear became your default emotion."

{…..Yes.}

"Kid, let me tell you a story. You heard yesterday that I'm the Red Dragon Emperor meaning you know I was also born with a strong and dangerous power. Though truth is there's more to it than that. Turns out the descendant of some old historic hero, Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada." Shirou explained to him. "If that wasn't enough, his lingering spirit still lives inside my body, so if I'm not careful I'll lose my sense of self and he'll take over my body. I've already lost control a few times in the past. And in the last battle we had, for a short amount of time he did take over my body."

{That sounds terrifying.}

"That's not the worst of it." Shirou told him, serious. "By being his descendants those in my family were born with great talent and power but in return, we had enemies everywhere, I know it's not the same as being hated by everyone even your own family members, but like you, I've suffered because of my birth. I was captured, tortured along with my Sister and both my parents were killed. It was Hell for me." He clenched his fist thinking back on it.

{….….….}

Gasper didn't respond. He didn't know what he could say or what anyone could say to all that, so he just remained silent.

"I didn't let those experiences break me though, I couldn't. There were reasons why I had to stay alive, so I swore that I would live as long as I had those reasons, no matter what I had to do." Shirou looked up at the ceiling. "Before I was old enough to even be in Middle School, I had already killed people. After that, every memory I have of my past involves me fighting someone. Even after I became a Devil I was still constantly fighting one enemy after another. You could say fighting is my life."

{B-But aren't you afraid?}

"Of course not, I love this power." Shirou smiled, truly meaning those words. "In fact, I could never understand why others could be afraid of their power."

{Why? M-Maybe, you may lose something important, you know? Why do you Senpai, want to live such a straight forward life so much.….….?}

Gasper waited for a response and Shirou lowered his head a bit before answering.

 **Play OST - Gintama - Tetsu wo Tataki Nagaratemee no Tamashii wo Tatakiagero**

"Straight forward huh? Let me ask you this; what do you think happens in this world to those that don't have power? Without power you can't decide anything in this world, neither how you live nor how you die. Even if I might lose something important to me because of this power, if I didn't have if I know I'd lose something important. In fact, I would have lost so much so many times in the past in if I didn't have these powers of mine and that includes my life. Don't you think that's much more terrifying?"

Those words completely silenced Gasper. Though Shirou wasn't done.

"Life can be a bitch at times and no one knows if it'll ever get better, but I learned something growing up. Until the day you die life will always keep challenging you, the only absolutes are you can't turn back and you can't change what's already been done. So you have four choices; give up, run away, blame someone else or accept the challenge. And I made my choice, so now whatever challenges come my way, I'll face it and charge at a break-neck pace right towards it. That's what made me into the man I am today."

GIIII!

With a dull sound, the door opened up a bit.

"….…But, how were you able to make such a choice, even though you were just a kid back then?"

Gasper's profile appeared from behind the door and he looked like he was earnestly holding back his tears.

"My Dad once told me something, something I'll never forget. In life, every man must one day leave his cradle, that's a part of growing up. But the most sinful thing a man can do after leaving his cradle is immediately searching for a new one. I may have been forced but my cradle was gone and you can't survive out there on your own if your a kid, so I grew up and became a man. It was sooner than I wanted, but it was something I needed to do. So there was only one choice for me to make, and I don't regret it at all."

"You're amazing Senpai, I could never do something like that.….." Gasper looked down, feeling sorry for himself. "All I could do was run away, I can't ever be a man like you."

"Maybe not like me, but that doesn't mean you can't do it at all. There are a lot of people who believe they can't change from their current-self. But honestly, anyone can, all you need to do is find the willingness to take the first step. After that everything will come more naturally."

"B-But I can't….… I, I will just cause trouble…. I am a hikikomori, I am intensely shy….. I can't properly use my Sacred Gear….."

"All you ever say is me, me, me." Shirou reprimanded him. "Taking the first step is something you need to do in order to change, but the first step is always going to the hardest, that's a fact of life. But why does everyone assume that you're required to do this by yourself?"

Gasper was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"People needs others to survive, that's their nature. And nature's smarter than people think. It's like when you're walking through the woods at night by yourself, it's dark and scary, you're afraid, you can't stop shaking and you don't know if you can make it out by yourself. But if you're with a friend and they walk through the dark with you, it's not as scary anymore." Shirou gave an example. "That's how much of a difference there is in having someone beside you during hard times. There's nothing wrong with asking someone for help at times."

".….…Then do you think I can change as well? Will I be able to stop being afraid?"

Gasper asked while tears were forming in his eyes as if he was holding back his tears. Though they weren't tears of sadness.

"Kid. You can take the first step, and if you ever feel as though the fear is too much and you don't think you can go on, then take my hand and hold it tight. I'll help you find your way back until you can walk on your own."

Shirou's words were earnest and filled with raw emotion, he sounded quiet but Gasper could see it in his eyes that Shirou was speaking his true thoughts. When he heard his answer the tears in his eyes started to fall and Gasper came out of his cardboard box while going up to Shirou and then he cried his eyes out while burying his face in Shirou's shirt. And Shirou just gently rested his hand atop the Vampire boy's head.

"Fueeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"That's right. Let it all out."

Gasper's cries filled the hallways for a long while, all of his emotions were being let out and he just kept going on. Shirou didn't speak or say a word, he just waited for Gasper to get it all out of him, just like Asia and Koneko he knew this was long overdue and it was good for him to get it out of his system before anything else. After a long while Gasper had calmed down a bit and his sobbing was now just mild sniffing.

 **Music Off**

"Feel better now?" Shirou asked him, with care.

"Yes, I'm okay now." Gasper responded, leaned his head out of Shirou's chest.

"That's good, seriously though kid. Any more crying and you might've got dehydration." Shirou joked.

"Hey Senpai." Gasper looked up at him. "I want to try to….… To take the first step like you said."

"And how will you go about doing that?" Shirou questioned.

"Well….… For now, I want to get better at controlling my Sacred Gear." Gasper responded.

"Well to do that, you'll either have to get over your shyness or drink some blood." Shirou gave him the ultimatum. "How do you feel about the blood idea?"

Gasper shook his head horizontally.

"…I am scared. Of drinking blood directly from living beings. I am even scared of my own power….. If anything more happens than this then….. I will….. I will….."

"Well then, the only option is to fix your personality." Shirou decided. "We'll start with this; from now on, I want you to dress in boy's clothes."

"Aaaaahhhhh!?" Gasper cried out, clearly not liking that idea. "But why should I?!"

"If you want to fix your personality and became a man you need to start from the beginning. And right now you're the girliest man I've ever seen." Shirou told him, unmerciful. "Which reminds me, why did you start dressing like a girl in the first place?"

"Ah… Um. Well…" Gasper looked down, seemingly nervous about how to answer. "Before I had a friend who made me wear clothes like these when we played together, and after a while, I got used to it. Now it's what I like to wear."

Shirou sighed, incredulously at what he heard. "Well I'm your new friend and I say stop doing that and dress like a guy again."

"But I like wearing clothes that are cute." Gasper spoke out, hoping to change his mind.

"Didn't I already tell you, the first step is always going to be hard. That means doing things regardless of whether or not you'd _prefer_ to." Shirou told him, not budging on this. "Besides, you got used to wearing girl's clothes after a while, so you can do the same with the opposite if you give it some time."

Gasper still looked upset, but soon hung his head in defeat. "Okay, I'll do it."

"Great, that's where we'll start. We'll get Rias to bring you a male student uniform in the morning." Shirou decided.

"Um, but even if I do, I'll still have trouble facing other people." Gasper brought up, still nervous. "I don't want to be but, I always get really afraid when talking to others face-to-face, that's why I need my cardboard box."

Shirou thought about what Gasper had just told him. "….So then, you'll have an easier time if you didn't have to look at other people face-to-face?"

Gasper nodded his head.

"In that case, I think I have an idea."

* * *

The next day, Shirou was heading to a certain place.

It was after school and he was called by Akeno. More like, Rias said that once she also finishes her work, she'll come later. By work, she most likely went another meeting with Sirzechs before the Peace Summit began. As some rain clouds gathered overhead in the sky, Shirou walked towards where he was supposed to meet Akeno. After walking through the city he stopped and stood in front of the location he was going to. The base of a flight of stairs that led to a shrine.

The shrine was a traditional Japanese shrine up near the mountains. It was old and abandon much like the old Church, but has a long history in this town. The stairs were really steep and went on for miles, they were so high up you couldn't see the top from the bottom of the stairs.

"Yep, no way I'm walking up there."

PA!

At that moment Shirou brought out his bat-like Devil wings and flew upwards. Intending on flying to the top of the stairs in favour of walking all the way to the top. This is something Shirou would do after all. It wasn't long before he had reached the top.

"Hello, Shirou-kun." Shirou looked to see Akeno at the top of the stairway, standing there to greet him with a smile. Shirou lowered himself to the ground and put away his wings. Now standing in front of the beautiful young woman, clad in her shrine-Priestess uniform. "Thank you for coming."

Shirou shrugged. "Not like I had a reason not to come."

Akeno giggled at his blunt response. "Please forgive me." She said with a smile. "I apologize for the sudden invitation."

"You're forgiven, but…." Shirou stopped and looked around a bit. "Is Rias coming?"

"Right now, she had some last-minute work with Sirzechs-Sama that needed to be done." Akeno informed him. "She'll be here right after that's over."

"Well then shouldn't you be with her?" Shirou raised a brow. "After all, you went with her every other time she met with Sirzechs."

Akeno shook her head. "True, but this time I couldn't because I had another job with a certain someone."

Akeno led him through the red archway gate and into the shrine grounds. As Shirou walked through as well, Akeno stopped beside him so they could take a moment to admire the scenery. Looking around Shirou could see it was actually a splendid looking shrine that had hardly any broken or damaged parts anywhere. Despite being abandoned it looked almost brand new.

"I guess I should mention, this is actually where I live." Akeno brought up. "It remained unoccupied for a while after the last generation's Priest passed away, then thanks to the Chief who managed to get a hold of this place, it became my home."

"That makes sense, only Rias would fix up an old broken down shrine if her Queen was living there." Shirou figured. "That also explains why Devils can walk around shrines without suffering damage.…. I mean you know since you're not Sirzechs."

Akeno blinked. "Oh, and why is Sirzechs-Sama a factor?"

"But when he first showed up in town he kept checking out all the local sights like some tourist." Shirou explained, thinking back to the Devil King's child-like excitement on exploring the town. "He also visited the local shrine, different from this one. But because of his planet-sized amount of Demonic-power, it didn't faze him at all."

Akeno giggled at that. "Ara, Ara, I suppose that's what we should expect from a Maou."

"I don't think he's a good standard to judge the term Maou." Shirou argued, before considering something. "Then again, the only other one I've met isn't exactly a good example either."

"Regardless, let's go inside." Akeno suggested. "The one we're supposed to meet will be arriving soon."

"That reminds me, who is this someone I came here to meet anyway?" Shirou asked.

"Is he the Sekiryuutei?"

An unfamiliar voice was heard but without a source, which got Shirou's attention. Suddenly in the sky above them, a bright golden light shone, lighting up the sky and ground surrounding them. It was like an eight-pointed star had appeared and was descending to meet them. Inside the light, Shirou could actually make out a person in the center. He has the appearance of a handsome-looking young man with long blond hair that went down to his shoulders, not golden blonde like Asia but rather a clear and gentle blonde and greenish-blue eyes like a shallow ocean. Like Azazel, he has twelve wings growing from his back, and unlike other Angels whose wings are white, his wings are coloured a dazzling golden. They were as gold as the light that surrounded his body and was a beautiful as treasures from a jewellery box while glowing as bright as a star that lights up the night. He wears a red robe with a gold cross on the front of his white alb. He has golden shoulder plates with a white sash and a golden halo set above his head.

Shirou didn't know what to think, since he was a Devil his body rejected anything Holy, like with Excalibur. But this time was different when faced with this man it wasn't that he didn't feel dread, his Devil instincts were making him feel the danger. But his mind was different, it was like he was mesmerized by what he was seeing, as if right now at this moment he was gazing into the face of the Highest echelon that anything Holy could ever reach, not unlike a God.

The Young man landed in front of them as the light surrounding him died down and had a gentle expression on his face as he greeted them with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Sekiryuutei, Shirou Tsukiharu-Kun. I am Michael. I am the Head of the Arch-Angels and current leader of Heaven. I see, this aura's quality, it's surely Ddraig. This brings back memories."

Hearing the Angel address him, Shirou composed himself and greeted back.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too; Michael of Charity."

Akeno seemed a little surprised by what Shirou had said, but Michael looked nostalgic.

"The Seven Heavenly Virtues. It's been quite a while since I've been called by that name, but please you don't need to call me that."

"Whatever you say, Michael of Sunday."

Now Michael seemed amused and chuckled a bit.

"No, what I mean is you don't have to address me by any title or formality. Please, I insist you simply refer to me as Michael."

Shirou seemed more relaxed now. "Well, that's a relief. I was worried you'd be one of those 'I am greater than thou' types and would be really big on ceremony grands. One wrong word and negotiations would fall apart."

Michael didn't seem the least bit offended by Shirou's new attitude, rather he still looked happy.

"Please don't be concerned about that, despite what others might think we Angels are actually a humble race." Michael assured him. "Besides, the truth is I have been looking forward to meeting you for quite some time now."

"Me?" Shirou replied, confused. "Why?"

"Because I wanted to meet the son of Mikoto and Hideki."

Michael answered, his smiling changing from a gentle one to a caring one, and once again with nostalgia. Shirou's eyes went wide, though only briefly.

"You knew my parents?" He asked, simply for confirmation.

"There are times when Officials or Warriors of the Church whose actions, feats or accomplishments grant them the privilege of meeting High-Ranking Angels like myself. And so I had the pleasure of being acquainted with your parents." Michael explained. "You are the spiting-imagine of your Father, though you have your Mother's Silver hair."

Shirou was quiet for a moment, but then took a deep breath and replied, still calm. "Yeah, I inherited a look from them."

* * *

With Akeno leading, Shirou and Michael headed to the main temple of the shrine.

Arriving inside, the large main shrine temple that had a number of huge pillars around the porch. The three of them went inside a tradition wooden room, there was a wide space there but no furniture at all, except for a large shrine at the end of the room. Michael was standing while Shirou was sitting comfortably across from him a few steps away. In between them, Akeno was sitting traditionally with her back against the shrine. They all remained in silence, with Shirou waiting to hear why he was called here.

CHILLS!

All of a sudden Shirou felt an unknown surge of power, and it made his skin crawl. The aura wasn't something he was familiar with, all he knew was that it was dangerous, he felt his danger signals going crazy. Though oddly enough it wasn't his Devil instincts this time, rather it was his Dragon instincts.

"Truth is, I thought of awarding you this."

Michael started. Then a large mass of light appeared in front of Shirou and Michael.

SHINE!

Shirou watched in curiosity, waiting to see what was going to appear this time, after a second the light faded and he could see it. In the light's place was a Sword that was floating and oozing a Holy-aura. Its appearance was similar to a European Vorpal-Sword with a guard that resembled four golden Dragon claws facing upwards. A grey hilt. A red diamond design imprinted on it, surrounded by four blue lines that curved slightly and a golden pommel in the shape of a cone-like arrow. The blade was also notched three times on both sides near the bottom and fuller, which reached slightly above the notches had a golden edge in the shape of a large pearl and the rest was coloured purple.

One look and Shirou immediately knew two things, this was a Holy Sword on the same calibre as Dyrnwyn and that it was the source of the danger he was feeling.

"This is George's—if I say Saint George then would it be better introduced? It's the Dragon Slayer's Holy Sword, Ascalon, that he possessed." Michael presented.

"Ascalon?" Shirou repeated, surprised. "From the story Saint George and the Dragon in which a British Knight named George who over 300 years old used a Holy Sword to tame and slay an Evil Dragon that demanded Human sacrifices?"

"The very same." Michael confirmed, mildly surprised and pleased he knew the story. "You certainly know a great deal about history and weapons."

Shirou shrugged. "They interest me. But I didn't know it was a literal Dragon Slayer Sword, or that those are a thing."

 **[It's a famous Dragon Slayer. Well, you should also study a bit more. A group of people who made slaying Dragons their job and created the concept of Dragon Slayers. Also, the term can be used for the weapon they used. Like how Light-based weapons were specially designed the kill Devils, special weapons with specific aura's were made to kill Dragons. Ascalon happens to be the Strongest of those weapons.]**

Ddraig explained to Shirou telepathically. Shirou decided to respond.

 _"….So this world has assassins specialising in Dragon hunting, huh? Do they also target Dragon-type Sacred Gear user?"_

 **[There are some from time to time, but they're usually motivated by a desire for glory or a ridiculous sense of Justice. As the Red Dragon Emperor you'll already run into people like that, Dragon Slayer or otherwise.]**

 _"You have a good point there. But how do they get Dragon Slaying weapons anyways."_

 **[There are certain Magicians or Blacksmiths who can forge them. But an easier method is to use an ordinary weapon and use it to kill a few Dragon, this way the weapon will naturally become a Dragon Slaying weapon.]**

 _"Interesting._ _…._ _"_

Shirou considered the possibilities on what Ddraig had just told him, like if doing the same thing to beings other than Dragon would naturally create weapons made for slaying them. Questions for later, right now he turned his attention back to Michael.

"Since I highly doubt you brought me here just to show off Ascalon, I'm guessing there's a reason you want me to see this Sword."

"As a special courtesy, since I am giving this, even you a Devil who has the power of the Dragon can handle it."

Now Shirou was surprised, his eyes went wide. "Wait…. You're giving me this Sword?" He asked, like an employee who was just told they're getting a promotion.

"That's correct. But before you can possess it, do you think you can assimilate it into the Boosted Gear?" Michael requested.

Shirou blinked. "I can do that?"

 **[It depends on you. The Sacred Gear answers on your feelings. If you wish for it, it should be possible.]**

 _"Oh right, the whole 'The power responds to your feelings' thing."_ Shirou remembered, before saying out loud. "But why give it to me? I mean don't get me wrong. I want it and I'm grateful. But I don't get why. This is a one of a kind Legendary Holy Sword that can't ever be replaced, and you're just giving it away?"

Michael answers while smiling. "This time's meeting, I think there's a huge opportunity to cooperate between the Three Great Powers. I hear you already know it so I am saying this but, we lost our creator—God during the last War. Our enemies also lost the old Satans in battle. The leaders of the Fallen Angels are reticent. Azazel also has his official stand of not wanting to create Wars. This is a chance. A chance in order to get rid of the useless battles. If small scale battles continue like this intermittently, then the Three Great Powers will be destroyed. Even if that isn't the case, some from the side other powers may invade. That Sword is a present from me to the Devil Kings side. Of course, I also sent presents to the Fallen Angel side. I got the rumored Holy Demonic Swords from the Devil side as well, our side is very grateful as well."

Huh, I guess that's a mature way to look at it." Shirou accepted his answer. "Still though, you're a look more accepting of the idea of making peace with Devils and Fallen Angels than I expected you'd be."

"Do I surprise you?" Michael asked, now a little amused. "I'll be the first to admit that I share some of the blame when it comes to the conflicts between the Three Great Powers. But everything I do, I do for the betterment of my Faction and my brethren. To that end I will gladly lay down arms and make peace with even my greatest enemies, considering they are will to do the same."

Shirou processed his words, trying to determine if he was being sincere or not. When he could tell he was, Shirou smiled. "I believe you."

Michael smiled back. "I'm grateful for your trust."

Then Shirou thought. _"Still though. The part about other powers may invade is concerning. Ddraig, what are the odds some other Faction will collide with the Trinity Factions should they make peace?"_

 **[Ordinarily, they don't walk over from their territory. Since an implicit anti-War agreement was present. However, we don't know if the others will move when they find out that the Primordial God of the Holy scriptures has died. This talk is also about making sure that the Three Great Powers don't utter the non-existence of the Primordial God of the Holy scriptures outside.]**

 _"So they want to make sure their big secret stays a secret. And to that end, they'll make peace as sooner as possible."_

 **[It makes sense. The God of the Holy scriptures was the most powerful existence in all the world. Simply knowing he was around was enough to ward off any other power from involving themselves with the Three Great Powers, only the Devils and Fallen Angels dared to challenge him because that was the nature of their existence. If the Primordial God was revealed to no longer be around, other powers might feel emboldened by that fact and try to start conflict against the Three Factions.]**

 _"I already know the secret is a necessary one, Ddraig. Not just for Humans but for every race. Without it, there would have been an endless amount of problems within the Factions, much less other Factions."_

Michael continued. "We heard that the one who opposed us, the Welsh dragon had become a Devil. As a greeting and alongside that as a present, we're giving you this Sword. From now on you'll probably be targeted by Dragon-Class opponents and the Vanishing Dragon. I thought that for the rumoured 'The most talented host in history ', it may become a supporting weapon. Considering you can already masterfully wield the Holy Sword Dyrnwyn, I believed it was the perfect gift for you."

 _" 'The most talented host in history', is that seriously what people are calling me now?"_ Shirou thought before saying out loud. "But from what you've told me, even though you had to give a gift to the Devils side, it didn't have to be anything specific." Shirou pointed out. "Yet you chose to give a gift that only benefited me personally. Why is that?"

"Two reasons. One; Only once have the Three Great Powers held hands together. That's during the time they defeated the Red and White Dragons. Since it was the two Dragons who trespassed into our battlefield and threw the battlefield into disarray." Michael said in remembrance of that time.

Shirou looked down at his hand. _"He's talking about you."_

 **[…Who can say.]**

 _"You seriously think you can play dumb at this point."_ Shirou lazily asked him, before turning his attention back to Michael.

"Wishing that we hold hands together like that time, I am placing my hopes in you in the Red Dragon Emperor. It's typical Japanese right?" The Arch-Angel reasoned. "And reason two—"

Shirou interrupted. "And as always in the nature of these things, number two is the kicker."

"This one is actually more simple, I told you I'm placing my hopes in you. Honestly rather than placing my hopes on you as the Red Dragon Emperor, it's because you are the son of Mikoto and Hideki Tsukiharu." Michael told him truthfully, still smiling. "I always believed in them and so I wanted to believe in their son. That's why I wanted to give you Ascalon as proof of that."

"But unlike my parents you don't know me since we just met, not to mention you're the first Angel I've ever met." Shirou pointed out. "Yet you're putting your hopes on uniting the Three Factions onto me, you really think I'm someone who can or would do that?" He asked as if he was testing Michael to see what his answer would be.

Michael's expression didn't change and he simply answered without hesitation. "True we've never been acquainted before today. However, I still believe I won't regret placing my trust in you. Besides, it wouldn't be placing your hopes on something if it was already guaranteed, would it?"

Shirou seemed bewildered by his answer at first, then let out a small laugh.

"Haha. I gotta admit, I didn't expect that answer." Shirou then looked up at the Sword. "Alright let's get down to business. How's this work, do I just take the Sword or what?"

Akeno who had remained silent this whole time and almost seemed forgotten answered his question this time.

"There were final adjustments done on that Sword in this shrine. Maou-Sama, Azazel-Sama, and Michael-Sama's camps' ceremonies have been performed so even if a Devil houses the power of the Dragon, he can touch it."

Shirou nodded now ready to claim the Sword. He reached out and took the Holy Sword floating in mid-air in his hand. While holding it no negative effects happened. He felt the Holy aura but no damage was flowing into him. Meaning they had succeeded in adjusting the Sword so Shirou could hold it.

 **[Partner, focus your consciousness on the Boosted Gear. I'll follow up after that. Try making the Sword in your hand combine with the surge of the Sacred Gear. All you need to do is match the wavelength of the Sword with your own.]**

Following his instructions, Shirou closed his eyes and invoked his Sacred Gear, which made the red gauntlet appear. With great focus, he started combining the surge of the Boosted Gear with a surge of the Holy Sword in his hand. He could feel it in an instant, the Holy aura was flowing into the Sacred Gear. It passed through the Sacred Gear and the sensation of a bad surge flows into his body, like if poison was slowly filling inside of your body, but….. Slowly it becomes familiar, and a sensation as if it is being taken in by Ddraig's power attacks him.

SHHHHHHIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNEEEEEEEE!

While assimilating Ascalon into the Boosted Gear, the light that surrounded the Sword before was shining again and as the process went on, the glowing light shined brighter and brighter and brighter. Until the whole room lit up to the point where it was hard to see through it all.

Once the light faded the assimilation was complete. The Holy Sword and Sacred Gear had combined and now took on a new form. Shirou gasped when he saw that now the gauntlet of the Boosted Gear had the blade of Ascalon growing out of the front portion of his left hand.

 **[The integration was a success.]**

Ddraig confirmed it, though Shirou inspected the new form, looking a little put-off.

"A long-bladed gauntlet." Shirou carefully looked over it. "Hmm, not my preferred choice of weapon, but it'll have to do."

After confirming it Michael clapped his hands.

"I have done what I set out to do. And with that, it's time. I shall now take my leave."

Before he could however, Shirou addressed him.

"Hey, listen Michael. There's something I want to ask you about. So after the conference, mind if we talk?"

"If it's after the conference then I don't mind at all. I'll definitely hear what it is you would like to talk about. Don't worry."

FA!

SHINE!

After saying that, Michael's wings opened up and his whole body was once again wrapped by light. Afterwards, he was soon covered in a flash of a light that resembled an eight-pointed star again, though this time only for a moment. When the light faded the Chief of the Angels had disappeared from this place.

* * *

"Here's some tea." Akeno said, placing a hot cup of tea in front of him.

"I prefer coffee." Shirou commented, though he still took the cup.

The sun had begun to set and the two Devil teens were in the shrine house after Michael left. After being led inside, Shirou was now with Akeno in a Japanese-styled room and was being served by Akeno in a room that looked like it was made for tea ceremony. Though disregarding that, Shirou just took the cup and drunk the whole tea in a single gulp. Afterwards, he put the cup down and turned to Akeno.

"I've had better."

"Well, that hurts my feelings, considering I've studied in tea ceremony since I was a child." Akeno informed him, though she didn't sound upset. "Although you're actually the first person I've served tea to in this shrine."

"That reminds me, I've been meaning to ask you Akeno." Shirou brought up. "Kiba, Asia, Xenovia and Gasper are all European, but you're Japanese aren't you?"

"Ara, what makes you say that?" Akeno asked, smiling as she placed a hand over her mouth.

"Oh don't play dumb. At first, I thought Priestess of Thunder was just a name they gave you because you dressed like a Priestess for fun. But now I see you live in a Japanese shrine house and you just said you studied tea ceremony, a traditional Japanese custom. Not to mention, back at the Underworld when everyone dressed formally for the after-party, you were wearing traditional Japanese clothes." Shirou listed. "All signs point to you being from a Japanese family, one that's big on traditions if I might add."

Akeno giggled. "Ufufufu… I'm flattered that you pay so much attention to my life." She joked. "You're correct, I'm from a traditional clan known at the Himejima Clan. My Mother was a Priestess."

"And your Father is a Fallen Angel." Shirou added.

Akeno paused, now looking down, upset and dejected.

 **Play OST - Hajime No Ippo - So Far**

"..….Yes."

"Don't worry, I have no intention of prying. I just brought it up because that's what Kokabiel said."

"Oh come on now, aren't you curious?" Akeno asked, with a self-loathing smile. "You can't tell me you aren't interested to know how a Human Priestess had a child with a Fallen Angel leader."

"While I'm sure it'd make for an interesting story, it's none of my business." Shirou reasoned, unconcerned. "So I won't ask."

Akeno then placed her hand over his, looking shaken up. "….I want to tell you." She told him, not looking at him. "Right now, I feel as though I want to tell someone so I can stop thinking about it."

Shirou could tell this was a sore subject for her, though he knew it would be bad if these feelings were kept bottled up. "In that case, go ahead. I'm all ears."

"As you know I am the half-breed daughter of the Fallen Angel leader Barakiel and a Human." Akeno began, still sound depressed. "My Mother was a daughter of a certain shrine of this country. I heard that on a certain day, my Mother saved Barakiel who had collapsed from injuries and from the fate of that day I was born."

PA!

Akeno stood up and started to remove her top, letting it fall just enough to expose her back. Then expanding from her back were wings different from the usual two wings of a Devils. The one on the right was the usual wing was of a Devil. But the other one n the left was the black-feathery wing of a Fallen Angel.

"They're dirty wings…..The wing of a Devil and the wing of a Fallen Angel, I possess both of them." As if despising the black feathers of Fallen Angels, she grabbed them with her hand. "While hating these feathers, I met Rias and became a Devil. but what was born was the feathers of a Fallen Angel and Devil, a more disgusting creature who possessed both. Fufufu, this may suit me who has dirtied blood flowing in her veins."

Shirou stayed silent, taking all this in. He didn't know what to say or what to think. But never did he imagine that Akeno would hate herself to this extent, she carries an even greater hatred and self-derision for her lineage then Koneko or Gasper.

Akeno turned around to face him, holding up her dress to barely cover up her breasts.".….How do you feel after hearing that, Shirou-Kun? The truth is I've wanted to tell you for a while. But you hate Fallen Angels, right? They hurt you and Asia-chan once and tried to destroy this city once, there's no way you can hold good thoughts about them—"

"I having trouble understanding what you're saying." Shirou interrupted her, completely nonchalant. "First think back as hard as you can, and then tell me; When did I ever say I hated Fallen Angels?"

 **Music Off**

Now Akeno just seemed perplexed. "What?"

 **Play OST - Fairy Tail - Mirajane**

"I think you've misunderstood something. It's true that my past experiences with Fallen Angels have been piss-poor terrible so far, but that's only counting five Fallen Angels in total." Shirou pointed out. "You honestly think I would condemn an entire race based on the actions of a few? That'd be like saying 'A Chinese man hurt me, a Japanese man, so I hate all people from China'. That's not only discrimination but completely unfair, that's the reasoning of a punk-ass racist who doesn't understand a damn thing." He reasoned. "Besides, what happened to me had nothing to do with you, so what possible reason would I have to hate you?"

Akeno seemed surprised at first by his unresponsive reaction, though she remained objective.

"That's not the case, I have the blood of a Fallen Angel in me, you know? Can you forgive me? Although I reincarnated into a Devil, the fact that I have the blood of a Fallen Angel in me doesn't change.…. I may have approached you wanting to get hated, you know….?" She then stopped and looked away and smiled sadly. "No, that's definitely the case. I am the worst kind of woman…"

Hearing her words Shirou just let out a tired sigh. "I swear, you're just like Koneko."

Those words slightly confused Akeno, while Shirou stood up and walked over to her.

"You both act as though what you were born as determines the person you are. But tell; is there anyone in this world that has a say in how they're born?" Shirou then looked at her softly. "I can tell you hate your Fallen Angel side, like how Koneko hates her Nekomata side. But listen, it's ridiculous to believe that your very being is decided based solely on your blood, do you think being a Fallen Angel automatically means you're evil? I don't."

Now Akeno's eyes went wide as if she could no longer comprehend what he was saying, or maybe she didn't know how.

"Just by listening to you in this single conversation, I can tell you've been through a lot. Some of it happy, some of it sad. But you've withered through it all to be able to be here today." He gave her a deep look of understanding. "I've never thought differently of any of the others when he learned all their origins and I won't start here, we all met in this world by chance and wherever we came from doesn't matter anymore, we're together now. So don't think this changes anything, I didn't think any less of you because of your lineage. At the end of the day, you're still Akeno Himejima and as far as I'm concerned that's all that matters."

At those words, everything he said seemed to all just hit Akeno all at once. Without being prepared for it all she simply stood there, frozen like a statue.

The only motion that was made were the tears that began to stream down her eyes. However, Akeno floats out a smile and wipes her tears.

"…..You said some killing words.… After hearing that…. Won't I really really get serious…"

 **Music Off**

Before he could ask what she meant, Akeno suddenly came towards him and lunged at him. Because of that Shirou was pushed back and fell on the floor with Akeno on top of him. His arms were spread out on the floor, basically doing nothing. While Akeno was clinging to him as she brought her hands up to the sides of his head and pulled him closer.

Akeno then whispers in his ear, while having a faint blush. "I have decided. I don't mind being your fourth."

Shirou blinked, needing more information. "Okay… My fourth what?"

"…..In the order of positions on those who love you. Mika-chan has the first position and Asia-chan has the second. Not only that, Rias already took the third position…. The first, second and third position can't be shaken I guess…"

"Why is my Sister included in that list and why did you make her first?" Shirou asked, with half-lidded eyes. "Why does everyone think I'm going to do my Sister?"

"Hey, Shirou-Kun." Akeno ignored him and spoke while clinging to him. "I heard from your Sister that you're going to build a Harem."

"Oh, of course, she told you." Shirou rolled his eyes. "So what of it?"

"Do you think there'll be room for me? I want to be one of your girls. Don't you think it's a good position?" She asked, pressing her breasts against his chest. "One of yours? Just the thought of it gets me hot. Like having an affair."

"You're a real piece of work, aren't you?" Shirou asked rhetorically, before smirking. "Truth is I don't care about annoying stuff like positions or order. I just do 'cause I want it, and because it feels good. So if you want to be mine so badly, then fine I'll take all of you."

"You'll take all of me?" Akeno exclaimed looking aroused, while she gasped with joy. "That sounds so hot, I like when you talk dirty. It turns me on."

"Well then, you're gonna love this."

CHU!

Shirou immediately pulled her in and kissed her, with their lips locked and shoved against each other, he wrapped his arms around her neck, pressing her large breasts his chest again. After a few moments, she pulled out and stared at him with eyes clearly full of lust. "You still feel hot?"

"If I were any hotter, my blood would be on fire." Akeno responded, seductively leaning in closer. "But we can't just stop after a kiss, can we? I need more of you. I know; you want me to be in control don't you?"

At that moment, with one swift movement, Shirou spun their positions around until she was the one lying on her back against the tatami matted floor and he was kneeling above her. Looking like a predator that pridefully conquered a lesser predator.

"Let me tell you something about me." He started, while using his hands to pull down the top of her Priestess uniform, until it was all the way down to her hips and her entire torso was exposed. "No matter the relationship or the person. I am always the one on top." Shirou told her, in a dominating tone.

Despite the change in positions, Akeno's violet eyes didn't reflect any hesitation, fear or discomfort. In fact, if the raggedness of her breathing and the flushed expression on her face was any indication, she actually enjoyed the change.

"Then please have your way with me. I wonder what it would feel like to have my body devored by a hot, younger guy." The Gremory Queen moaned seductively, as she made no move to object his advance. "I bet we could learn a lot from each other."

"I'll bet we could." Shirou leaned in closer. "For starters, you're about to learn why I'm called the Red Dragon of Domination."

"I can't wait." Akeno breathed out, sexually.

"Which one of you would like to explain what's going on?"

.

.

.

"Ah Fuck, really?" Shirou groaned.

Feeling all the emotion from the situation completely deflate after hearing that voice, Shirou lazily sat up and turned around to look at the sliding door to the room. And there she was, standing by the door was Rias Gremory, standing gracefully, looking unamused and glaring daggers at both of him.

"Ara, Ara. Looks like we've been caught." Akeno noted, now amused.

"She really has the worst timing." Shirou grumbled, disappointed. "All that time she could've shown up and she chooses now? I swear it's like she timed it or something."

"Answer me, Shirou?" She said in a dangerous tone as she looked at her Pawn and her Queen, the latter of whom also sat up with her Boobs hanging out.

"Answer you?" Shirou repeated, sounded bored. "And what exactly was the question?"

"What are you doing and what is going on?" Rias clarified, narrowing her eyes.

"What's it look like, I'm dominating." Shirou stood up and walked up to her, displeased. "And what's going on is, I've been cocked blocked. And I don't appreciate it."

"Why were you about to do something like that with Akeno?" Rias demanded an explanation. "Especially when you knew I was coming."

Shirou zoned in on that last part and decided to ask. "Are you jealous?"

With that, Rias' stone-cold glare melted into a red-hot blush. "Ah, no of course not!"

"Your face says it all." Shirou informed her. "You're upset because I was about to blow my load over Akeno and not you."

"That's not it!" Rias protested embarrassed, before trying to change the subject. "Anyways, what happened with the Sword?"

"Got it right here." He lifted his left hand.

"And the Angel?"

"Was running late so he had to leave."

"Then that means your business here is concluded." Rias pointed out. "So you have no reason to stay."

Shirou shrugged, indifferent. "True, and I'm not in the mood anymore. So I might as well go, besides I want to do some training with my new weapon."

Shirou walked through the door and began to leave, Rias followed after him.

Akeno giggled before returning to her usual self. "Ufufufu, he's more than enough for both of us. You don't have to be so jealous."

"I'm not jealous!" Rias insisted, turning around to shout at her.

Shirou patted her on the shoulder and told her knowingly. "Yes, you are."

* * *

TAP!

TAP!

The Devil Princess and Dragon Emperor were walking descending down the shrine's stone stairs. While walking Rias remained silent, still upset though Shirou remained indifferent. The whole time Rias was waling beside him she kept thinking about how to express the way she was feeling into words but, didn't know how.

Until suddenly, Rias just stopped walking.

Shirou after taking a few steps noticed Rias halted and stopped to look back at her. "What's wrong?"

Without looking up, she kept her head down and spoke quietly. "…..Hey Shirou, Akeno is….…. Akeno."

Shirou blinked, confused and not following her. "Uhh….. Yeah, she certainly is?"

"Akeno is Vice-Chief. However, she is 'Akeno'…..… And I am—?"

"Rias."

Shirou finished her sentence, which made her look up at him surprised.

"Rias is the Chief. However, she is 'Rias'." He continued, before asking. "And why are we talking like this?"

Rias smiled and shook her head. "Forgive me, I was just feeling a little down and became needlessly concerned."

"You mean about your jealousy?" Shirou asked.

"I'm not…." She stopped and just sighed in defeat. "Fine, I'm jealous."

"Yeah, I noticed." Shirou told her, sarcastically.

Rias slowly walked closer to him and looked up. "I don't want you all to myself or anything like that. At least I never thought that was the case…. But lately, you've been getting closer to the others to the point where it's not just Mika and Asia, but now Xenovia, Koneko and even Akeno as well." She let out a sigh. "I just worry that I might fall behind the others."

"You're surprising timider than you let on." Shirou joked, before going up to her. "Maybe this will fix that."

CHU!

Before she could react, Shirou leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. She was surprised at first, but the closed her eyes and enjoyed it as she placed her hands on his shoulders and passionately kissed back. While Shirou wrapped his arms tenderly around her back and waist.

When they were done they both slowly pulled back and Rias looked much more relaxed and less downcast compared to before.

"Was that just to shut me up?" She asked, half-joking.

"Not all of it." Shirou told her, half-serious. "You're putting to much pressure on yourself. You may not know it, but I take these things seriously. We've been through a lot, and have something that no one else is a part of. That's not the kind of thing you can just forget or ignore." He reminded her, turning around. "There's no need to worry about stuff like 'falling behind' or anything because that's not even a factor."

Rias' expression was now more refreshed as if the concerns or stress she was feeling was now gone, she even shrugged her shoulders. Like a weight she was carrying was lifted and she could now relax. "I'm sorry, it seems I was worrying unnecessarily." She then looked straight at him and smiled. "And thank you."

"No needs for thanks, I'm just glad you're more relaxed." Shirou said, reaching into his pocket. "I was worried I'd of had to show you this."

In Shirou's hand was a pair of black-laced lingerie panties. But Rias gasped when she saw them, not because Shirou had something like that but because she recognized that pair. They happened to be the ones she is or rather was currently wearing. And when pulling down the hem of her skirt, the feeling of fabric against her skin was enough to tell her that she was bare underneath.

"How did you get those?" Rias cried out, blushing and embarrassed. "I was wearing them just a second ago?"

"I grabbed them while my arms were around your back." Shirou replied, nonchalant. "I mainly did it to see if I could, though apparently it was too fast for you to notice."

"Give it back!" She demanded, her face gone red.

"Hmm, Nah I don't think I will." Shirou decided, putting them back in his pocket. "I kinda like this side of you, you're more entertaining. Besides, why's an exhibitionist like you getting so worked up just from losing a single undergarment?"

"There are lines!" Rias shouted, losing her composer. "No one would feel good if someone suddenly took their panties in a public place!"

"I guess that's fair." Shirou shrugged.

"Then give them back." Rias demanded.

"No way." Shirou taunted.

FA!

And to add insult to injury he summoned his wings and flew upwards, flying away with his stolen goods. Not letting him get away, Rias brought out her wings and flew as well, desperately chasing after him. Shirou couldn't hide his amusement.

"Ha, now just hope no one happens to look up!" Shirou joked, with a laugh.

"Mmm, come on now!" Rias cried out, trying to catch him while small tears of embarrassment formed around her eyes.

And so they flew along through the sky. Being a Pawn who stole his master's undergarments and said master was chasing him to reclaim them. And in that time, all responsibilities or concerns were forgotten and they simply acted like a teenage boy and girl.

* * *

In the big city, high up on top of a skyscraper that was being constructed, there was Azazel. Sitting on a girder as he looked out at the city lights that brightened up the night. Standing next to him and leaning his back against another, vertical girder was Vali.

"Azazel, do I have to attend tomorrow's conference as well?" Vali inquired.

"Of course, Vali." Azazel confirmed. "Since you're the Hakuryuukou."

".….Hey, Azazel. Are Wars not going to occur any more?" Vali tiredly asked.

"You just seek battle." Azazel scuffled. "You sure got attached to an ideal Dragon. You're the type that won't live long."

"That's fine." Vali admitted, uncaring. "I don't have any interest in living long. Just, I feel regret being born in this age. A world without God. I wanted to try defeating God."

"That's really like the Vanishing Dragon. And, after defeating all the strong guys, what will you do?"

".….I'll die. I don't have any interest in such a boring world."

Vali looked out at the city lights that brightened the dark of the night. But in his eyes there reflected no emotion, all that was there was an emptiness that was created by a complete feeling of boredom and no motivation what so ever.

* * *

The next day, early in the morning at Kuoh Academy. After arriving back at the Old School Building, Shirou, Asia and Gasper were doing Time-Stopping training in the forest surrounding the Old School Building. And for extra help, Ren was called and was joining them in training Gasper. Though he was mainly there to stop Gasper in case he tried to run away.

Though something worth mentioning is right now Gasper's appearance was different. His face, hair and body were exactly the same however, his attire was different. Right now Gasper was dressed in the Kuoh Academy male uniform. Just as Shirou instructed him, Gasper was dressed in the clothes of his actual gender, though it still wasn't hard to mistake him for a girl, it was a step in the right direction.

Despite that, his personality still needed work. When he first saw and was introduced to Ren, he shrieked.

 _(Eeeeek, another new face!)_

Hours had passed into training, Gasper was concentrating with all his might. His eyes were glowing purple as he stared at a volleyball frozen in mid-air. He was finally able to focus his powers on one object and stop it in time.

Shirou stared carefully to see how long he could keep it up. Ren and Asia were standing at the side with a metal basket of volleyballs. Floating over the blonde Bishop's shoulder was her small Dragon familiar, Byakurai.

Gasper stopped and fell to his knees, releasing the ball and letting it fall to the ground. Shirou looked disappointed.

Ren sighed. "Well he finally stopped one, but it was only for about ten seconds."

"Still, that's an improvement compared to before." Asia reasoned, trying to be positive.

"Guuuuu….. Shirou-Senpai… I-I am tireeeeed." Gasper moaned while rubbing his eyes.

"Don't you dare start whining!" Shirou exclaimed, angrily. "You've only managed to stop one out of 20! That's nowhere near good enough to be useful. We'll keep going until you can use your power willingly."

Gasper nodded and got back up, on shaky legs.

"Shirou-san, here are the balls."

Asia walked over from the metal basket and brought over more volleyballs. It was a training where he threw the ball to Gasper and he stopped it in mid-air. He was now able to succeed once out of 20 times. Compared to the beginning where he couldn't do it at all, it was a bit of progress. But nothing to brag about yet.

Just as Shirou was about to reach for the next volleyball, he suddenly feet some discomfort in my arm. And then noticed his arm was unable to move. Asia gasped when they saw a purple aura his arm. Somehow, it seemed Gasper accidentally stopped time around Shirou's arm.

"E, Eek, S-Sorryyyyyy!" Gasper shrieked, releasing Shirou's arm.

He then leaned on the ground on his knees and curled up, while grabbing his head.

"Stop apologizing!" Shirou shouted, before letting out a frustrated sigh. "Stopping things in time is the point of this training. The trick is to aim it at a specific target and keep it up. It doesn't matter whether the target is a ball or my arm as long as it works." He explained to him. "Now let's take it from the top."

However, Gasper said with a complicated like expression.".…S-Since I am incomplete both as a Human who has a Sacred Gear, and as a Vampire as well, I only cause trouble to everyone…. I-I have to control my power more….. W-What a halfway incomplete existence I am….." He sobbed.

"You know kid, you're a piece of work. How do you expect to get better at controlling your power if you can't stop saying you suck?" Shirou told him, without bothering to console him. "Training is a long and gruelling process that no one gets right on the first time. If you lose your nerve from the beginning then you won't be able to accomplish a thing."

Gasper stopped sobbing but still didn't feel ready to get up.

Then Ren spoke up.

"Listen, Gasper, the training might seem hard, but Shirou's putting in a lot of effort as well to make it easier for you."

Gasper looked up at him perplexed. "What do you mean?"

"Ren, don't say anything unnecessary." Shirou warned him.

"I think he should know." Ren reasoned, turning back to Gasper. "At first glance, he's just throwing a ball in the air and telling you to stop it. But haven't you noticed Shirou always takes a few seconds to aim the ball before throwing?" He revealed to him. "That's because he's making sure that every time he throws it, the ball is always in the exact same position in mid-air for you to stop it. That way, you only need to focus on one point, rather arbitrarily focusing on a different position each time."

Now Gasper gasped in surprise. He was completely taken aback by this new information. If what Ren said was true that meant that Shirou was going through a lot of effort to make the training easier for Gasper.

He then turned to Shirou, with that expression. "….Senpai?"

"Why are you so surprised? Just because I'm going to train you hard doesn't mean I'm going to train you stupid." Shirou told him, in a serious tone. "Things are only going to get harder from hereon, how do you intend on getting stronger if you can't even finish your first training session on easy mode?"

Hearing that, Gasper wiped his tears and stood up.

"Shirou-Senpai, I-I'll do my best.…!"

"That's better." Shirou reached into his bag and threw something at Gasper. "Though to really help you get more into it, put on your mask." Shirou instructed him.

"Understood!" The thing Gasper got from Shirou was a mask. "Th-Then, I'll wear this mask and do a power-up!"

It was a very bizarre mask. It was a plastic white mask that completely covered the face. The face of the mask had a single eye hole that was positioned at the right eye, letting him see through it. The majority of the rest being taken up by red lines. A red circle in the dead center of the mask, overlapped by a smaller circle and lines extruding from them both. The single eye hole was outlined in red, with a circle just beneath it. One final circle was on the chin area and extended a line that looped around the central circle and stopping just short of its origin.

After Gasper said he had trouble seeing others face-to-face, Shirou decided to have him wear a mask so they could lessen that problem. So far Gasper has taken a great liking to that mask, or anything that would cover his face.

"Do your best! Gasper-Kun!" Asia cheered him on, with a sweet smile.

"Y-yesssss! Thank you very much, Asia-Senpaiiiiii!" Gasper exclaimed, more encouraged.

"Don't baby him, Asia!" Shirou snapped at her, narrowing his eyes at Gasper. "We've still got a lot more hard training ahead of us. We'll make a man out of you yet."

"Understood. Thank you very much!" Gasper responded, still grateful.

A few more hours passed and Shirou kept training Gasper until the sun came up. And by then Gasper passed out from exhaustion.

* * *

The day had passed and now night fell. The sky over the town darkened and Shirou had just entered his bedroom while closing the door behind him. About a few minutes ago he had just called it a day on training, after training Gasper at the crack of dawn, he spent the rest of his time training himself and his ability at wielding Ascalon. After spending the day on that, he was now understandably tired and crashed out on his bed.

The Peace Summit where all the Faction leaders would gather was the next day and he had a lot on his mind regarding that. Thus he had trouble sleeping, all he could do was lay there, staring at the ceiling with so many thoughts going through his head.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

The sound of someone knocking on his door interrupted his thoughts.

"It's open!"

Shirou looked up to see the door open and the person who walked in was Rias, dressed in her pink, see-through nightgown. He could only guess she was going to request they sleep together, then again considering Rias never sleeps unless she was Naked first, the fact that she was wearing her nightgown most likely meant she wanted to talk first.

However, she wasn't alone. Rias smiled and stepped aside to let the other person in. Shirou sat up to see, his second guest tonight was Akeno. With her hair down from its usual ponytail, while wearing a short white bathrobe that went down to only her thighs.

"Two scantily dressed women in my room?" Shirou noted stoic, noticing how they were dressed. "But it's not my birthday."

Akeno giggled and closed the door behind her, while Rias began to explain. "After the last meeting I wanted to come and see you, but our meeting ran late. So I was hoping you wouldn't mind my requesting if Akeno could stay over for tonight? I don't think it's too much of a hassle."

"Fine by me." Shirou replied, unconcerned. "If it's just one person then there's plenty of room."

"Thank you. Also, another I brought Akeno with me was because she wanted to take this moment to apologize to you."

"Apologize for what?"

"Obviously, I'm very sorry for surprising you today and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me." Akeno answered, with a bow.

Shirou raised a brow. "I'm still confused, what exactly is this about?"

"I heard." Rias said, with a pleased look. "I heard about what Akeno told you and your reply was to her."

"She's talking about how you told me you didn't think any differently of me even after finding out my lineage." Akeno clarified, also looking pleasant. "Even though my emotions were high and I got a little carried away at the end, I explained to her what happened before then."

"Okay, I get that." Shirou then turned to Rias. "But that doesn't explain why _you're_ so happy."

They both walked over to his bed and gently sat down, both sitting at each of his sides. Akeno at his right and Rias at his left.

"Because I was happy to hear your kindness and I was reminded about just why I love you, Shirou." Rias wrapped her arms around his left arm.

"I don't consider it kindness, it's just my nature." Shirou brushed off.

"Regardless, your words meant a lot to me and so, after talking it over with Rias we've come to a decision." Akeno grabbed his other arm. "I meant what I said before, I'm yours from now on." She told him, smiling while having a look of longing in her eyes. "Is that all right with you?"

"I don't mind that honestly." Shirou told her, acknowledging her feelings, "But you know you can't take that back right?"

Akeno pulled him closer to her than Rias. "I'll take whatever you can give."

Rias then got upset with Akeno "You know what, Akeno? We may be best friends, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't act with a little bit of restraint."

"Like you're one to talk." Shirou thought towards Rias.

The King and Queen Duo of two big breasted Devil ladies got closer and sandwiched Shirou between their huge racks. "Yes well, restraint is forbidden in a serious battle." Akeno told her with her expression being the same pleasant smile and closed eyes. "How could the King say something so cowardly?"

"I can't afford to lose after hearing you say that now, can I?" Rias had a confident and proud smile. She grabbed Shirou by the head and shoved his face in between her the valley of her ample breasts.

Akeno grabbed Shirou and did the same thing herself, smothering him with her slightly larger breasts. Akeno giggled and said. "Ufufufu, is that how you're playing?"

At that point, Shirou grabbed both of them by the shoulders and pulled them away from him, letting him take a breather. Afterwards, he looked at both of them, slightly vexed. "Would you cut that out?!" He shouted, not pleased. "I enjoy as much foreplay as the next guy. But my head being passed back and forth is where I draw the line."

Unfortunately, though his problems weren't over as in that moment Asia opened his door and saw what was going on. Wearing her green nightgown and squeezing her stuff bunny to her chest. Asia looked like she was about to cry. "No fair, you two! No fair!"

"Hey, ever heard of knocking!?" Shirou barked at her.

* * *

Morning broke the following day and Shirou slowly opened his eyes, waking up and feeling groggy.

Though as his mind started to clear and his sense slowly came to him, the Silver-haired youth could tell something didn't feel right. In a second his vision was completely clear and he could see to his surprise, Akeno was on his right side, holding him close with her right arm. He then turned to his left to see, Asia was on his left side and had his arm around her shoulder, while she snuggled close to him. Then when he sat up he saw that Rias was there, sleeping on his legs and lower half, while her ass was facing him.

And the punchline to all of this was; all three of them were Stark Naked.

Like that wasn't obvious at this point.

Shirou quietly freed himself from each of their grasps and got off the bed. He then went over to his window and opened the curtains to let the early morning sun rays fill the room. Once the room was lighter he looked back at his bed and took a good look at the three Naked maidens sleeping blissfully on his bedspread.

"Hmm, not a bad sight to wake up to." Shirou admitted to himself.

"I agree."

Shirou turned towards his bedroom door to see his little Sister, Mika walk inside his room. It should be worth mentioning that she was also staring at his bed and the ones on top of it.

"Hey, Mika." Shirou greeted her, nonchalant. "Surprised your awake this early in the morning."

"Well, Brodoroki today is a very important day after all." Mika reasoned. "All the Bats, Crows and Pigeons are going to gather around the school to discuss the fate of the world and so on. And of course, we'll have to attend." She talked as though the whole thing was a chore.

"I agree it's a pain, but I have reasons why I have to go." Shirou reminded her. "Besides, it's not like we could ditch even if we wanted to."

Mika shrugged and let out a sigh. "I know."

"That reminds me, about the thing I asked you about yesterday." Shirou brought up.

"You mean about the thing Michael told you about?" Mika asked for confirmation. "The thing about how its possible other Factions might attack once it's found out that God's dead?"

Shirou nodded, now serious. "You're the smartest person I know when it comes to thinking ahead. So I want you to tell me, how likely is it that the Summit might be attacked?"

Mika was silent for a moment, trying to find the words to explain the answer to him. After a bit, she finally answered. "I've been thinking it over since yesterday. But unfortunately in every scenario I think of, they all end with a conflict starting up in the Summit."

Shirou looked down, but not to surprised. "So it's impossible for this to end peacefully."

"Sad to say, but the fact is that in many societies when the one on top carries both the most influence and power, their presence is the main reason no one starts a conflict out of fear, you could say their very existence secures peace. And there's no one higher than God, literally." Mika explained. "There's no telling how many people stayed quietly simply because he was around. And if they find out he is gone, not only those people but new people who weren't around before might feel emboldened to try and make their mark, for no other reason then the fact that they can."

"But the main problem with that is; not everyone knows that God is dead yet." Shirou pointed out. "So if someone were to attack, they would have to know that beforehand."

"Not necessarily." Mika argued. "Since everyone at the Summit will know, it is possible that someone might leak that information to another party, and that will give them in the incentive to stage an attack."

"So, you think there might be a traitor?" Shirou asked before he thought about it. "Now that I think about it, they've been at war for eons. It would be wishing thinking to just believe that every single person there would just forgive and forget all that and accept peace. It could just be a random grunt or someone high up on the food chain, but chances are someone will be against this, besides the leaders themselves."

"And even if there were no traitors, that still won't change the fact that someone might stage an attack." Mika added. "This Summit will be the first and possibly only time the leaders of all Three Factions will be in the same room, they all must have plenty of enemies or just people out there who hate peace. I'm sure none of them will be able to resist the opportunity. So regardless of the motive, the outcome always stays the same."

"Even so, it might be better for us to keep this to ourselves." Shirou suggested. "Despite all these deductions, in the end, we have no proof and all these thoughts will be seen as us just telling everyone to distrust each other. That in-of-itself could hurt rather than help the peace negotiations."

"So, you think we should just do nothing?" Mika asked, doubtful.

"No, I say we should keep our guards up." Shirou corrected her. "If we're right and something does happen we'll be ready to fight back and on the slim chance that we're wrong we'll just let things play out and leave it at that."

"Sounds like the only thing we can do, but still.…." Mika clasped his hand and looked up at Shirou with a loving expression. "No matter who might invade, I'm not worried. As long as your there with me, I have complete faith that things will work out."

Shirou looked down at her and gave her the same expression. "Yeah, and no matter what might end up happening, I have no doubt you'll be on top of the situation. You always are."

The two of them just stayed together for the moment enjoying each others company and having complete faith in each other. It was a testament to their bond. No matter how much time may pass or who they may fight along the way. For both of them, their first and foremost would always be each other.

The moment ended when Mika let go of his hand, took her Phone out of her pocket and turned towards the bed with a mischievous look.

"What are you doing?" Shirou asked, having a pretty good idea.

"Obviously, I'm snapping a picture of this." Mika answered, with a grin. "All three of them are completely Naked and together on a bed, _I_ can't possibly miss _this_ opportunity to permanently capture this image."

"I still have no idea why they're undressed. I mean they were wearing nightclothes before going to sleep." Shirou noted, find it odd. "Did they strip while asleep or something, can people do that?"

"Apparently they can." Mika reasoned.

SNAP!

As she took a picture of Rias, Akeno and Asia who were still fast asleep in their undressed state, Shirou just decided to leave the room at this point.

"I'm going to make breakfast." He said as he walked out the door.

* * *

The time was late at night. High above, a protective barrier similar to the one the Student Council created during the fight against Kokabiel completely enveloped the school grounds. This barrier was much stronger and more stable as it was crafted by the powers of the Three Factions leaders.

Inside the barrier, the school campus was filled to the brim with Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils all surrounding the outside of the building. The Angel troupes were in the sky above the Main School building, the Devil troupes were surrounding the courtyard and the Fallen Angel troupes were hovering over the forest area. All sides were ready to fight immediately in the event negotiations fell apart. Naturally, the air was very tense.

It was finally time for the conference of the Three Great Powers.

* * *

Inside the Occult Research Club meeting room, all the members of the Gremory Peerage had gathered and were ready to go to the conference room. All of them were in their Student uniforms, expect the Tsukiharu siblings who were both wearing the respective outfits that they wear when going to an important battle. The same ones they wore during the Kokabiel fight.

Rias who was sitting behind her desk stood up and addressed everyone. "Well. Time to go everyone." They all nodded back at her, ready to go. Rias then turned to Gasper's box as he was in it. Sitting on the couch next to the box was Koneko, to keep him company. "And Gasper, behave yourself while we're gone."

"Yes, ma'am." Gasper said from within the box.

"I don't mean to scold, but if you activate your powers it'll stall negotiations." Rias informed him gently. "And we don't want that, I hope you understand."

The top of the box opened and as Gasper popped his head up. "Yes, ma'am."

Shirou who was just on his Phone put it away and walked over to Gasper. "Even though you dress like a guy now, you still need to work on your attitude." He apprised Gasper. "It won't matter how much you can control your power if you can't get out of your box."

"R-right." Gasper responded, both nervous but grateful and a little determined. "I'll work on it."

"Ara, Ara, you really are acting like a Senpai to him lately." Akeno noticed, smiling. "I'm a little surprised."

"…I'm more surprised you got him to lose the skirt." Koneko commented.

"Speaking of which." Kiba stepped forward. "Why are you two dressed for battle?" He asked, referring to Shirou and Mika.

"It's so we'll be prepared in case fighting breaks out." Shirou answers, not technically lying.

"Shirou, the Summit tonight is meant for negotiating peace." Rias reminded him.

"There are literally armies outside waiting for the order to attack." Mika reminded her. "So this school could become a battlefield at any minute. Our concerns are justified."

Rias wanted to say something more, but couldn't deny the truth in her words so she said nothing.

"Frankly I'm surprised you guys are going dressed like that." Shirou pointed to them. "This is going to e a historical moment that could change the world and go down in history. And yet, you're all going dressed in your Student uniforms."

"Well there isn't any set dress code, and we don't really have anything else we could wear that would be fitting for an important gathering." Kiba reasoned. "So this is our default."

"I only have this and my battle uniform from when I was a warrior from the Church." Xenovia added. "I figured this was the better choice."

"Whatever." Shirou relented, no longer caring. "It just feels like you're always going to be wearing those stupid uniforms at this rate."

"Alright enough messing around." Rias spoke up, now come out from behind her desk and walking up to the door. "We're leaving. Let's go."

The Crimson-haired Devil mistress then walked out the door with her Queen beside her and the rest followed suit. They walked down the hallway, out of the building and made their way through the forest to head to the Main School building and the conference room.

The day of fate has finally come.

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. First, regarding Shirou's moment with Gasper, I figured it was a better interpretation of how things would go between them. Gasper is someone who needed someone who could connect to him on a more personal level rather than someone who would just coddle him. Shirou gives him something to aspire to and to motivation to better himself while helping find his own self-worth, which I think he needs rather than just everyone letting him be a boy in a box. Plus I gave him a mask instead of a paper-bag because I thought it would be a better idea and more original.**

 **And for those of you who might not like the fact that I had him lose the cross-dressing trope, my response is. And this is no offence to those of you who like traps, but I just don't like them. In fact, I hate them, I can't stand them and I will not continuously write them in my story. Besides, for those of you who read High School DxD EX, you know that in the future Gasper becomes strong and brave, and dresses like a guy. So it works out.**

 **When it comes to his meeting and interaction with Michael. I wanted it to be a chance for Shirou to be able to decide for himself what kind of person he was. And from him to see the difference between those who lead the Church and those who lead the Angels, they might be connected by they are completely different. I wanted Shirou to get a chance to see that. Please among all the leaders of the Three Factions, Michael and the Angels are the only ones who act, normal compared to the Fallen Angels and Devils. He doesn't have a weird side or quirk and is in my opinion just generally a decent guy. The purpose of their meeting besides giving Shirou the Sword was to show that.**

 **As for the moment with Akeno, I wanted her to have a real moment when she revealed her lineage. A moment with someone who actually made her see herself as someone more than just her blood and was able to actually put their thoughts into words. Not just struggling to say 'I hate Fallen Angels but I like you, 'cause you're you'. Also, I had Shirou say he doesn't hate Fallen Angels because, well you heard his reasoning. How is it fair to judge all Fallen Angels simply based on Raynare's group and Kokabiel. It's not, so he doesn't hate them.**

 **Also in case you were wondering; Yes Shirou and Akeno would have had sex if Rias didn't show up at that time, they're both perfectly willing to so there would have been no problem. Speaking of Rias, that moment she had with Shirou in the following scene was something I made because I thought she deserved a moment with him since it's been a while. And I thought it was fun.**

 **Finally the conversation between Shirou and Mika on the day of the Summit. I believe it makes sense, given there personalities it would be odd from them to just believe every single person would be okay with holding hands and making peace after such a long War, just because their leaders say so. And since Shirou acknowledges Mika's strategic ability more than anyone else's, he asked her to think of how the Summit might turn out based on what they know. So they'll be expecting it to be attacked (Which it will be) and be prepared for I fight, but the others won't know because they telling them wouldn't help at all, so they kept it to themselves. Which is something to two of them would decide, they typically keep secrets from everyone besides each other.**

 **Next chapter the Peace conference will finally begin and we'll be reaching the climax for this Arc. The fights and conclusion will be a huge scale so it could take a while, but I put my all into making it great. So prepare yourselves for it.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review, if you like the story then click the follow/favourite, and as always have an awesome day.**


	28. Summit Begins And Enemies Arrive

**Hey everyone and get ready for this chapter. With this chapter, we're going to start the Peace Summit. To e honest with you I wanted this chapter to be much longer but things have been kind of difficult, for one thing, my laptop broke down a little while ago so now I'm using a different one, and even though they said it would be fixed in a week they're three weeks late. plus because of the corona-Virus, I can't go outside.**

 **Because of all that writing takes longer than usual and I didn't wait to keep everyone waiting after taking so long to update, so I decided to just post what I had so far. Hope you enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody, Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, Highschool DxD Born, Highschool DxD EX and Highschool DxD Hero are all owned by Funimation, Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Passione, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.**

* * *

"Shirou" Regular speech.

 _"Shirou"_ Thoughts.

 ** _DRAGON SHOT_** Attack names.

( _Shirou_ ) Words said previously.

"SHIROU!" Shouting speech.

 **[Ddraig]** Dragon talking.

* * *

 **Summit Begins And Enemies Arrive**

* * *

If someone were the describe the current mood of the Gremory Peerage at this current moment, that word would be; Tense.

Not that anyone could blame them, given where they were currently going and what was about to begin. Right now they had already left the Old School Building and were inside the New School Building, walking down the hallway and making their way to the staff meeting room—The location where the VIPs of the Three Great Powers were going to have their meeting.

The Seven High School Devils all walked in complete silence, no one dared to say a word. Mainly due to the fact that none of them could imagine would they _could_ say at a time like this. Most of them had assumed they were mentally prepared for this, but it was only after they entered the building that they felt the situation finally hit them.

They were walking to a meeting room where it was no exaggeration to say that the future of the world would be decided. Knowing that fact just made it all the tenser for them. As the door to the meeting room was in sight, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of their footsteps echoing through the empty building.

Once they were right in front of the door they all stopped and Rias who was leading the group turned around to give them all one last look. Rias' expression was completely serious and the looks they gave her were the same, showing they all were in the same mindset right now.

Knowing that there was only one thing left to do.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Rias knocks on the meeting room's door.

"Excuse us."

* * *

A second after knocking, Rias opens the door and enters the room. Followed by Shirou and then the rest of the Peerage.

Inside the meeting room is a gorgeous and pompous looking table. And as if surrounding it, people who they all recognize are sitting. The air is enveloped by quietness and everyone had a serious face. Asia grabbed the end of Shirou's sleeve due to feeling unease. He lightly clasped her hand to ease her.

Devil side. Two of the Four Satans; Sirzechs Lucifer and Serafall Leviathan. Plus the maid Grayfia. She was on standby beside the tea preparing cart. Sirzechs and Serafall dressed more formal for the occasion, right now Serafall was dressed in a formal business suit that looked like something an office lady would wear, while Sirzechs was dressed in his Devil King attire, the same one he wore at the after-party at the Underworld a little while ago, only without the cape. Also on the Devil side, standing against the wall was Sona Sitri along with her Queen; Tsubaki Shinra.

Angel side, the Golden feathered Chief of the Arch-Angels and current God; Michael and the chestnut-haired Exorcist Irina Shidou who was standing behind the seat Micheal was sitting on.

Fallen Angel side, Azazel with his 12 wings unfurled and unlike he usually does, he isn't wearing a yukata but a black robe elaborated with ornaments atop of an expensive-looking suit. It would make sense that he won't be wearing a yukata in this place if he were a normal man. Behind him was the Vanishing Dragon, Vali who was casually leaning his back against the wall.

When Xenovia walked into the room, she gasped after she immediately noticed her former friend being present. "Irina?"

"Hmph…" Irina glared at her before looking away in disgust.

Glancing at Shirou, Azazel's lip's end rose as if happily. That got his attention and Shirou looked over to see Azazel, but a second after that is attention shifted from Azazel to Vali.

Vali was also looking his way, except he was giving him a smirk that looked both confident and at the same time condescending, it was as if Vali was taunting him with just his expression. As if to return the favor, Shirou gave Vali the exact same look. Despite the tension in the air, the two Dragon Emperors only focused on each other, like sparks were flying just from them being in the same room.

"My younger Sister, and her household." Sirzechs introduced Buchou to the VIP of the other Factions. Rias also bows to them. "In the attack of Kokabiel a few days ago, they were active during the raid."

"I have heard the report. I give my thanks once more."

Michael says his thanks to Rias. Rias conducts herself coolly, and once more bows.

"Sorry, Kokabiel of my side caused you trouble." With a brazen expression, Azazel says it. As if he's brushing the whole thing off.

Rias also twitched her mouth, feeling annoyance at his attitude.

"Stand beside the wall over there."

Taking Sirzechs' direction, Grayfia urges them to the wall on the Devil side. Sona and Tsubaki were already standing there.

Rias stands besides Sona. Rias makes Shirou stand beside her after that is Akeno, Mika, Kiba, Asia and Xenovia lined up in turn.

After confirming that, Sirzechs says. "Now that everyone has arrived, I'll say the preconditions for the meeting. The people present here to acknowledge the most important event and forbidden subject, i.e. The Non-existence of God."

Judging from the fact that no one looked surprised or even reacted, including Grayfia, Sona, Tsubaki, and even Irina, it was safe everyone present was aware of that fact. So Sirzechs continued.

"Then, acknowledging that, let's continue the conversation."

The conference is progressing smoothly. Different topics brought up by different leaders which led to different conversations keep beginning and shifting throughout the Summit. Michael would say something. Sirzechs would say something. There were instances when the place would freeze when Azazel said a sentence occasionally as well but it always looked like the Governor of the Fallen Angels was purposely making that atmosphere and enjoying it.

Devils, Angels and Fallen Angels were all taking part in valuable conversations, with everyone around them hoping things would remain this agreeable.

The conference continues and soon it was finally Rias' turn to speak.

"Now then, Rias. Could you speak about the incident a few days before?"

"Yes, Lucifer-sama."

After being urged by Sirzechs, Rias, Sona, and Akeno stood up, they talked about a part continuously, about the recent Kokabiel's attack. And everyone belonging to the Three Great Powers continued to hear about it.

Rias talked about the summary of the incident she experienced herself plainly in a calm manner. Maybe due to maximum level nervousness, those hands were shaking after all. Due to her speech, something with the Three Factions may change. No matter how courageous Rias is, this place's atmosphere would be very painful.

Each of the Faction's VIPs who heard the report were, letting out a sigh, scowling, smiling—each person had a different reaction.

"—That is all. The report which I, Rias Gremory and the household Devils over there experienced." Rias concluded.

"As a witness, I Sona Sitri confirm the veracity of the report given by Lady Gremory." Sona added.

"Good work, that will be all." Upon hearing Sirzechs', the three of them went back to the wall

"Good job, ladies. You make me so proud Sona-chan." Serafall whispered to her. Though Sona tried her best to ignore it.

"Now then, Azazel. After hearing this report, I want to hear the opinion of the Governor of the fallen angels."

Upon Sirzechs' questioning, everyone's gaze concentrates on Azazel.

Azazel started talking after letting out an intrepid smile.

"Regarding the incident a few days back, Kokabiel, a leader of our Central Organisation, Grigori, kept quiet to the other leaders, as well as to me, the Governor, and acted independently. I sent Vali in an attempt to dispose of him. After that, the organization's court-martial was supposed to decide his punishment and enforced it. However, the Red Dragon Emperor over there already killed him before Kokabiel could be taken into custody. But considering everything was written in the material that was forwarded to you, you all should already know all this, right? That is all."

Michael then says while sighing. "As the explanation, it is the worst category but, I know about the story of you personally not wanting to make anything big occur against us. Is that true?"

"Aah, I don't have any interest in wars. When Kokabiel also disparaged me, don't you have the report for that as well." Azazel told him, nonchalant.

This time Sirzechs asked Azazel. "Azazel, I want to ask one thing but, why have you been gathering owners of Sacred Gears for the past decades? At first, I thought you were gathering Humans and attempting to augment your battle potential. I even anticipated you to wage war against heaven or us but….…."

"Yes, no matter how much time passed, you didn't wage a war against us. When I heard you got hold of the Vanishing Dragon, I was enveloped by a strong wariness."

Michael's opinion was the same as Sirzechs'

Hearing the two's opinion, Azazel smiles bitterly. "It's for the sake of Sacred Gear research. If that's the case, should I send a part of the research materials to you as well? Even if I did research, I wouldn't wage a war against you or anything. I don't have any interest in a war at this late of an hour. I am perfectly satisfied with the world right now. I have strongly ordered my subordinates, 'Don't interfere with the Human world's politics', you know? I have no intention of intervening in religion either, nor to influence the business of the Devils. Damn, is my trust in the Three Factions the least?"

"That's true."

"That's right."

"That's exactly it "

Sirzechs', Michael's and Serafall's opinion coincided.

Upon hearing that, Azazel uninterestedly pecked at his ears. "Che. I thought you were better than God or the last generation's Lucifer but, you guys are troublesome guys yourselves. Sneakily researching doesn't get along well with you, huh. Ah, I got it. Then, let's make peace. Originally wasn't that the intention as well? Angels and Devils as well?"

On Azazel's sentence, each Faction was surprised for a small interval. Rias and even Sona beside her are considerably surprised. It seems like Azazel's peace speech was quite a thing to be surprised at. The only one who didn't seem surprised was Mika, rather she raised a brow.

 _"Is it really that surprising?"_ She thought confused.

Michael who was surprised by Azazel's proposal smiled. "Yes, I also planned to propose peace to the Devil side and Grigori. Even if we continue the relationship of the Trinity Factions like before, then it will become damaging to the world right now. I, the leader of the Angels say it since—the original cause of the war, God and The Maou have been annihilated."

Azazel burst out laughing on Michael's words. "Ha! That stubborn Michael has started to speak. Even though he was about God, God, God before."

"….…I have lost a lot of things. However, there's no helping seeking for things that aren't present. It is our duty to guide Humans. We members of the Seraph have the same opinion that the most important thing is to watch over the children of God from now on as well and to guide them."

"Hey hey, with your speech just now, you'll 'fall' you know? I thought that but you took over the system, right. It's become a good world. It's completely different from the time when we 'fell'."

Sirzechs also says the same opinion. "We are the same. Even if the Maou isn't here, in order to continue the species, Devils to have moved forward as well. Even we wouldn't want war. If we do another war, the Devils will be destroyed."

On Sirzechs' words, Azazel nodded as well.

"Yes. If we do another war, the Three Factions will definitely be mutually destroyed. And then, it will affect the Human world as well and the world will end. We can't do wars now."

Sometime ago Azazel had a joking mood, but it's done a complete change and he has a serious expression.

"Do you think a world without God is wrong? Do you think a world without God would decay? I am sorry to say but that isn't the case. You and I as well are both healthily living like this." Azazel said that while opening his arms. "The world moves even without God."

* * *

Meanwhile back at the Old School Building as the sky turned blood-red, Gasper and Koneko were sitting together on the couch. Though Gasper was still in his cardboard box and playing with a handheld video-game, while Koneko was quietly eating snacks.

Gasper sighed and looked anxious. "I'm worried." He promptly said. "I hope their okay, what if the Summit turns chaotic and war breaks out? And—And then, everyone dies! I can't take it!" Gasper started cowering and quickly put on his mask.

Koneko didn't respond to his outburst and just kept eating, then after a few seconds, she turned her head towards the door, as if she noticed something was wrong. Appearing outside the building was an orange magic circle and what came out of it was a small group of people.

These people were surrounded by an ominous aura and were all dressed in the same outfit; a black robe that covered their entire body, expect it exposed some of their fronts, which showed of their chests—showing that everyone member of this group were women. These cloaks came along with strange hoodies that covered the top halves of their faces and had a strange three eyeball pattern on them.

These cloaked individual all had magic circles beneath their feet which they used to float towards the Old School Building.

Back in the clubroom, Koneko stepped off the couch and stood facing the door. Gasper saw this and looked at her.

"Koneko-chan?"

"…Don't move a muscle, Gya-Kun."

BOOOM!

Shortly after her warning, there was an explosion that destroyed the doors to the clubroom and the group of cloaked magic-user came in through the door, still floating on their magic circles.

"…Humans?" Koneko noticed, surprised.

"Yes, that's right. We are indeed Human but we are somewhat different, in that we utilize magic by rebuilding the structure of Devil magic." The woman in front explained, before smiling. "We're known as Magicians."

"If it helps you understand a bit better, we're on the same level as what you Devils call Middle-Class Devils." Another Magician brought up. "It would be best if you did what you were told."

"Hand the half-Vampire over to us." A third Magician demanded. "We've already confirmed he's here."

Koneko didn't respond but instead stood firm, ready to fight if need be. While Gasper hid inside his box while cowering in fear. Seeing that Koneko was going to cooperate, the Magicians fired magic blasts at her which caused another explosion that consumed the whole room and made a fight break out.

BOOOOOM!

* * *

"Hmm?"

Back at the Summit, right after Azazel said his thoughts on the matter, Shirou suddenly let out a confused murmur and walked away from the line the others were standing in to walk pasted the table and stand in front of the window.

 _"What is this?"_ Shirou thought to himself. _"This strange feeling?"_

Though by doing that he quickly got the attention of everyone else in the room.

"Shirou-san?" Asa voiced her concern.

"What wrong, Shirou-kun?" Sirzechs asked, looking over to him curiously. "Is something the matter?"

"I'm not sure, but out of nowhere I felt something." Shirou responded quickly like his attention was elsewhere. "I don't exactly know what, but it doesn't feel right."

"Is it an enemy?" Rias asked, now concerned.

"I can't say, it's just whenever I get this feeling in my instincts it always means their's trouble that's about to happen." Shirou told them, now facing them. "Either it means there's hostile intent nearby or it's warning me of danger."

"If you want my opinion you should probably listen to him." Mika spoke up. "Brohan's hunches are almost always right in situations like these."

"Ha, in that case, you must have some pretty sharp instincts." Vali commented, still laid back.

"In that case, Vali. Would it be correct in assuming your instincts sent you the same warning signals?" Azazel questioned, still smiling though having a serious tone.

"I wouldn't go so far as to call it dangerous, but I will admit I've noticed something for a while." Vali answered, with little concern. "And at the very least, I can sense hostility as well."

Upon hearing that confirmation, everyone in that room became more alert, especially the leaders sitting at the table. The fact that both Dragon Emperors claimed to be able to feel a negative intent feeling the air was enough for them to feel more on guard. It was almost as if they were guaranteeing the possibility of the Summit not ending peacefully.

"This is most concerning." Michael brought up. "If what they are saying is true, then either an individual or a group with hostile intent is nearby."

"Which means it's either a traitor, a power outside our Factions has started to move or an enemy of a specific individual in this room." Serafall deduced with more seriousness then she has shown as of yet. "Now the question is; what should we do in response?"

The leaders pondered that thought in silence, trying to think of an answer. It's not like they didn't consider the possibility of something along these lines happening, but right now the problem in question was still unseen and therefore they couldn't fully grasp what they were dealing with. That made the question on how they should respond much more difficult to answer.

Though there was one person who didn't seem concerned and already looked as though he had an answer.

"Excuse me, but if you ask me; I say we proceed with the Summit as we have been doing." Azazel suggested.

Of course, his suggestion was met with surprise by all the others. Sirzechs voiced his concern. "Azazel, you're suggesting we ignore what could be a serious problem to ourselves and this Summit?"

"Think about it like this; so what if an enemy is lurking around since we don't have any way to know where they are exactly or what their motive is we can't do much about it." He reasoned logically. "Besides since they haven't acted yet that probably means they aren't planning for the timing being, and honestly are you all telling me your afraid of a hostile force whose very existence is based only on a hunch?" He finished almost mockingly.

Naturally, the other three leaders took offense to that and they all narrowed their eyes at him. Though that seemed to amuse Azazel all the more.

"Azazel, are you saying that our concerns are unwarranted?" Michael asked, being serious. "I would have thought you more than anyone would trust the instincts of the White Dragon Emperor, or in this case both Dragons."

"Don't put words in my mouth, I trust their instincts just fine. I'm just saying we need to look at the bigger picture and finished the Summit because we haven't gotten to the most important part in my opinion." Azazel clarified, still being brazen. "In fact, I'd say this complication is important because rather than our Three Powers, it involves forces that are equal to, if not more destructive. They are the Red and White Dragon Emperors."

Everyone's gaze now concentrated on Shirou and Vali. The two of them still keep their gaze on each other.

"You want to fight right now?" Shirou questioned, slightly confused.

"No, no, I simply want your thoughts on this matter." Azazel clarified. "What is it that the two of you desire?" He turns to Vali. "Firstly, Vali. What do you want to do to the world?"

On Azazel's question, the Hakuryuukou, Vali smiles.

"If I can fight strong guys, then it's fine."

"Heh. Yes but you can still find a lot of powerful opponents without having a war." Azazel pointed out.

Vali's expression didn't change in the slightest. "I suppose."

Azazel's gaze this time turns to Shirou.

"Then, Sekiryuutei, what about you?"

"Hmm, wait, why did the Summit suddenly into this topic?" Shirou asked, slightly thrown off.

"Shirou-kun, you have been paying attention until now, right?" Kiba asked with a well-meaning smile.

"For the most part." Shirou shrugged.

"Really? Because from where I'm standing, you've just been staring at Vali the moment we arrived." Mika pointed out, before making a mischievous grin. "Do you get lost in his eyes~?"

"Shut it!" Shirou snapped at her.

"Ahem." Sona coughed to get their attention. "Shirou please, I think you should answer the questioned." She reminded him, a little tense.

"Yeah, I know." Shirou turned to face the leaders. "If I'm being perfectly honest, I with Vali in that I want to fight the strong."

"Is that all?" Azazel asked, mildly surprised. "I was expecting something else, not to mention I never thought you two would have the same motivate."

"Don't get the wrong idea, my reason is different than his," Shirou told him. "For me fighting stronger opponents is a means to an end. The stronger my opponents are the stronger I become after I beat them. And to fulfill my ambition I need to become as strong as possible."

"That's quite interesting and exactly is your ambition?" Sirzechs asked curiously. "Won't you tell us, Shirou-Kun?

"It's actually something I decided on recently, but I have every intention of making it happen," Shirou said with his eyes closed, before opening his eyes and wearing his trademark fearless smirk. "My goal is to become nothing less than the Strongest Devil in existence and then, I will become the Devil King Lucifer!"

.

.

.

After his declaration, the whole room went silent. No one had expected him to say that and after he said it, no one knew how to react. It was an outrageous, audacious unbelievable proclamation and yet, Shirou said it with so much confidence, proud and looked so sure of himself that it was obvious to everyone present that he was being completely sure. And that was the most shocking thing.

The one who broke the silence was the one who seemed the least surprised.

"You wish to become a Satan?" Vali asked for confirmation.

Shirou's expression didn't change. "That's right. I want to transcend everyone in both the Human World and the Underworld, then I'll be one the who rules Hell."

"Shirou, how long have you wanted this?" Rias asked, taken aback by how sudden this all was.

"I started to think about it ever since I first met Sirzechs, but I became sure about it a few days after I killed Kokabiel," Shirou admitted. "I realized just being the Strongest wasn't enough to satisfy me." He looked up at the ceiling and reached out his hand. "What I truly wanted was to be the Maou, to reach out and become an existence that stands at the pinnacle of all races."

"But why Lucifer specifically?" Xenovia asked.

"Because among the Devil Kings, Lucifer reigns over all of them." Shirou's hand became a fist. "An Absolute and Supreme King whose power has no equal, that is who Lucifer is. And that is what I will become." He declared still proud.

"Heh. You say all that even though the current Lucifer is sitting in the same room." Azazel reminded him, amused. "I can't tell if you're just that brave or just foolhardy."

Shirou lowered his hand and looked directly at him. "Once the Underworld has no choice but to acknowledge I'm the best choice to rule, Lucifer's throne will be mine." He proclaimed.

"Hahahahahaha!" Azazel couldn't contain his laughter. "You really are unbelievable, just how proud can someone be?! But I can't say I hate it!"

"Just for the record, I don't have any issues about this," Sirzechs admitted with a pleasant and reassuring smile. "To be honest I'm actually impressed, it's the first time I've seen a Young-Devil speak his true thought so sure of themselves the way you have. Though I've always known Shirou-kun was someone who possessed the singular-confidence to do, I never could have imagined you had such aspirations."

"Well, you're the reason I have this goal," Shirou told him. "From the moment I saw how strong you were, you became a goal I wanted to reach." Shirou narrowed his eyes. "And now I promise you, I am going to surpass you in every single way."

"Hearing you say that makes me look forward to seeing what the future holds for you," Sirzechs responded, more interested than offended.

"Shirou, I think that's enough." Rias advised, put her hand over his. "I'm sure you've made your point."

"Hey, they're the ones who asked what I wanted in the world, all I did was answer the question," Shirou said to her.

"You shouldn't be surprised Rias," Mika spoke out. "Once you stop and think about it, that answer clearly something he'd come up with." She said with a smile. "Bronta is a man whose pride knows no limits after all."

"She has a point." Akeno agreed, smiling as well. "It was a very Shirou-like answer."

"True, I can't picture anyone besides Shirou-Kun saying they would 'stand at the pinnacle of all races'," Kiba added, also smiling.

Shirou shrugged his shoulders. "You all say that like it's a bad thing."

"I don't see what's so strange about it." Vali chimed in, still sounding laid-back. "It's only natural to want to soar to greater heights and stand on a higher echelon than others. We're the hosts of Heavenly Dragons, after all, we do have our pride."

"My thoughts exactly." Shirou responded in agreement.

"You two really are alike." Azazel noticed. "And yet, I still can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

Michael turned his gaze towards Shirou.

"Now then, the discussion has considerably been solved in a good direction, is it all right if we hear about the matter of Sekiryuutei-dono soon."

"Now that you mention it. I remember you said you wanted to ask me about something."

Azazel remembered as he also turned his gaze to Shirou.

"The truth is I wanted to talk to you both." Shirou confessed, taking a deep breath. "This is gonna uncomfortable for everyone."

"Just ask and get it over with." Azazel urged him. "We can't answer if you don't say it."

Mika walked up to Shirou and held his hand. "Go ahead, it'll be better to get this off your chest."

"Yeah, I know." Shirou responded before looking straight at the Gold and Black-winged Angels. "Tell me everything you can about my parents."

Upon his statement to the two leaders, almost everyone in that room was astonished as they turned their heads towards Shirou. All thinking why he would ask this of the Chief of the Angels and the Governor-General of the Fallen Angels. The leaders from the Devil side just stared and looked interested. While Michael and Azazel frowned, looking as though they expected something like this.

Shirou continued. "Despite everything I've learned about them there are still plenty of things that are unknown, I want to know the full story. And you two know more about them than any in this room, so tell me what you know." He tightened his grip on Mika's hand. "We have a right to know the truth."

There was a preset silence in the room for a brief moment. The silence was broken when Azazel sighed and scratched his head.

"I figured this was coming."

"Still he is correct. They do deserve the truth."

Michael acknowledged before he began to explain.

"To fully understand, I will start from the beginning. As you've heard, in the past after the Church's main headquarters discovered Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada's descendant, they took them in and groomed them to become a powerful and devoted member of the Church. However, what most people don't know is that we of the Arch-Angels including myself were actually the ones they served."

Everyone besides those sitting at the table became surprised by this new revelation.

"But how can that be?" Xenovia asked surprised. "I never heard of warriors or Exorcists that report directly to the Arch-Angels."

"Try to understand this was a special case." Michael explained. "After being brought into the Church, the Head-Cardinals planned to use him as a weapon against their enemies and to that end, they intended to mold his mind to be completely devoted to the Church or specifically, the orders of the Church."

Xenovia processed his words and looked down. _"Like how I was."_

"Too bad for them though, they failed." Azazel added.

"They failed?" Sirzechs repeated questionably. "What do you mean?"

"The top brass at the Church wanted Shirōu Amakusa's descendant to do whatever they wanted. But they didn't just inherit talent, they were also born with charisma." Azazel informed them. "It's in the nature of those from that bloodline to want to live and act in whatever manner they feel is right, as such they wouldn't just follow someone else's to tune and blindly accept someone else's authority."

 _"That makes sense."_ Rias noticed in her thoughts. _"Both Shirou and Mika are like that as well."_

"Not only that but I already intended to meet him back then." Michael admitted. "Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada was the Human who was chosen by God. After God's death, the ones who led the Church started to stray from God's teachings and only cared about gaining more power to destroy Devil and Fallen Angels, many incidents like for example the Holy-Sword project were the results of that."

Kiba stiffened at that statement, still feeling resentment from the Holy-Sword project. Michael continued.

"Shirōu Amakusa Tokisada was the Human who was chosen by God. Because of that, I knew they would attempt to exploit their descendants for their own purposes. I wanted to prevent that. After I first met him he told me; 'They swore to follow God, not the Church'." Michael quoted. "From then on, on the surface, it appeared that they were warriors that served Church for generations. But, in reality, they acted under the orders of Heaven."

"But what about when Kokabiel told us they could bear their children with whoever the Church picked out?" Shirou asked. "He even called them breeding stock to make strong children?"

"Only a few people knew about this arrangement and Kokabiel wasn't one of them. He may have thought that was true when he said it, but trust me that wasn't the case." Azazel revealed to them. "The Church didn't have the authority to make that decision."

"That's correct. While it is true that your Mother married and children with one of the Strongest followers of the Church. Him being strong was never a factor, the two of them genuinely loved each other and wanted to share their lives together, I promise you that no one could influence that decision." Michael reassured them with a smile.

Hearing those words briefly put the Tsukiharu siblings at ease and made them a little relieved. But then, Shirou frown and wasn't done.

"That's not all I wanted to know." Shirou turned to Azazel. "Azazel, before you said that the Old Satan Faction targetted us because they wanted to destroy the Amakusa bloodline. So tell me; why did they wait until that point in time to do so?"

"The reason is actually pretty simple. It's because up until that point they never had the opportunity to." Azazel answered him.

"Opportunity?" Shirou repeated confused.

"Let me explain this one." Sirzechs requested, joining the conversation. "Shirou-kun, do you remember when I told you about the Old Satan Faction and how they were defeated during the Civil War?"

Shirou nodded so Sirzechs began.

"The truth is, after the Civil War they still remained active, it's just they mainly acted in the shadows and made sure they kept the involvements hidden in incidents they were involved in. But while they are against the current society of the Underworld, they are also enemies of Heaven and Grigory as well."

"That's true, it's not often but I've had the displeasure of having to deal with them before.

"The same is true for me."

Azazel added, followed by Michael. With that, Sirzechs continued.

"Because of that, even if they wanted to destroy the Amakusa bloodline, such a thing would be impossible without starting a full-scale battle against the Church. Which is obviously something they couldn't do. However, the situation changed years ago, because the current Amakusa along with her and her family left the Church and severed ties with them. That gave them the opportunity they needed."

"So if they hadn't left the Church, they wouldn't have been killed?" Asia wondered feeling upset by this topic

"Hold on, that doesn't add up." Mika brought up. "Our parents left the Church and moved to Japan more than 10 years before either of us were born. If they had such a long-awaited opportunity why would wait for over a decade to take it?"

"Because even though they left the Church, they technically weren't free from its watch." Michael answered her question.

"What are you talking about?" Shirou asked.

"Despite leaving the Church and being branded as heretics, the heads of the Church believed it wasn't a good idea to let them completely out of sight. And so they decided to keep them under surveillance." Michael revealed.

"You can think of it like being on parole." Azazel summarized. "Until they decided it was safe to leave them alone, they kept your family under watch and made the watchdogs report regularly to the Church."

"The method of surveillance was standing a family of devoted followers to Japan and having them become acquainted with your family." Michael looked back at Irina. "The family in question was the Shidou family."

Shirou and Mika's eyes widened when they heard that along with Asia, Xenovia, and even Irina herself.

"Irina?" Xenovia muttered surprised.

"I didn't know that." Irina quietly said to herself.

"The surveillance lasted for years until it was decided it was no longer necessary." Michael said before looking regretful. "And you know the rest, three years later that tragic incident happened." Michael then turned to Azazel. "Though I only recently became aware of this, I'd like to know the reason you involved yourself with that incident."

"There wasn't any special reason if that's what you're asking." Azazel leaned back into his chair. "Before these two left the Church, by chance we happened to run into each other. At some point, they did me a favor and so I owed them one. One the day their children were captured they called me to collect on that favor."

Michael looked upset by that statement. "But if they had truly needed help they could have contacted me. I would have gladly sent however much reinforcements was necessary."

"You know why they couldn't do that. Asking for help from the Angels even after being branded as heretics? There's no way those guys at the Church would just let that slide without dragging you and them into more problems." Azazel reminded him. "More importantly, the thing they wanted more than anything was to make sure their children didn't get involved in the supernatural world, that's why they asked me to rewrite their memories." He then rested a hand on his cheek. "But despite that, in the end, they still ended up getting involved and all because one of my subordinates went rogue. And who could have guessed their son would turn out to be the Red Dragon Emperor."

"But why did you restore their memories after revealing yourself?" Serafall questioned him.

"It was per their request. Despite their hopes, if their children did end up becoming involved with the supernatural, I was to unscramble their memories." Azazel answered her. "And the rest we all know." He then let out a sigh. "It's kind of ironic though, all they wanted was a peaceful life but despite that, they lost their lives in battle and their kids became Devils."

"It's like a cruel twist of fate. Those two did so much for God and the Church and I could never express how grateful I was." Michael said upset and looking regretful. "And yet I couldn't do anything for, even when they were unjustly branded as heretics or when they fighting for their lives." He then looks towards the others standing by the wall. "And now, all I can do is apologize. You as well, Asia Argento and Xenovia Quarta."

The two of them were surprised when Michael brought them up.

"If there is a person who can heal Devils and Fallen Angels present within the followers, it will influence the faith of the ones around her. The source of us living in Heaven is the faith of believers. Because of that, Twilight healing is a forbidden Sacred Gear which can cause an influence on the system. And also, as an example of the influence on the System—"

Xenovia interrupts Michael and continues.

"The people who know about the non-existence of God, right?"

"Yes, that's right, Xenovia. To lose you is a serious wound even for us but if apart from us, Seraph and a part of the Higher-Rank Angels, if a fair amount of people who know about the non-existence of God approach the place with a direct connection then there's a huge effect on the System. I apologize. There was no other way but to make you and Asia Argento heretics."

Irina looked in shock and wonder. Wonder because she was seeing the Arch-Angel Michael apologizing and shock because if what she was hearing was true then it meant Xenovia was innocent. _"Then she didn't betray us?"_

Mika then stepped forward and asked a question.

"This "System" you mentioned. What exactly is it?"

"This System was, if I explain it simply, the System to perform the miracles, etc. God did. God made the System, used it to bring about miracles above ground. To bring about the effect of Holy things like exorcism, crosses, etc. These are also the System's powers. After God had been annihilated, only the system to govern divine protection, mercy and miracles remained."

"And let me guess, without the 'Limitless power' God possessed, the current System is barely working at out compared to before?" Shirou speculated.

On his question, Michael nods.

"I'm afraid so. To be honest, it takes a big toll on anyone who uses it with the exception of God. With me as the center, every one of the Seraphs was able to somehow start up the system but….. Compared to the time God existed, the divine protection and mercy to those who believe in God is not complete. It's an unfortunate thing but, those who can be granted salvation are limited. For that, there was a need to keep away those people related to the church who could possibly cause an influence on the system. As an example of those who can cause influence on the system, a part of the Sacred Gear—Asia Argento's Twilight Healing is included as well. Your Boosted Gear and also Divine Dividing as well."

"And so for the sake of the Church, you had to sacrifice one believer." Shirou summarized. "That's the choice you made."

"Forgive me but it was the only choice." Michael said apologetically. "Still, I understand it wasn't fair to either of them." He then looked down. "It strange, it seems like all I can do is let the tragedies happen under my rule and then apologize only after it's too late. The fact that you reincarnated as a devil, that is our crime."

"I'm having trouble understanding something. Why are you apologizing for that wasn't your fault?"

Shirou's question not only surprised Michael, but also the majority of everyone in the room. The Golden-feathered Angel in question looked up at him perplexed. Shirou continued.

"Don't get me wrong, I am upset about all that stuff happening, but it's not like passing all the blame on you will make anyone feel better. You're not God, Michael. That's already been established and so nobody is expecting you to do everything or fix everyone's problems, no one except you yourself. The bottom line is, despite everything that happened you were only trying to do whatever you could for the sake of your Faction. And prioritizing your entire race over one or two people, regardless of who they are, is something any good leader would do."

Hearing his words and seeing Shirou expression—One that had no ill intent, only understanding—Truly shocked Michael. While the other three leaders sitting at that table all smiled at him.

 _"Well said, kid."_ Azazel thought approvingly.

 _"You really do have an eloquent way of seeing things, Shirou-kun."_ Sirzechs thought, feeling a small sense of Pride.

"But still, because of unjust decisions made by the Church, others were made to suffer." Michael reminded him. "I'm the one that rules over them so I must also bear responsibility."

"Are they suffering right now?"

Shirou's question silenced Michael. He then gestured to Asia and Xenovia.

"Neither I nor any of the rest of us are as worse off as you seem to think. At the very least, I don't have any regrets about being a Devil. To tell the truth, I'm happier now. I'm stronger, I finally know the truth about myself and past, and most of all; For the first time I felt like I was living in a world where even someone like me had a place to belong."

As he said those words, those in the Gremory Peerage smiled as well. The ones who were the most touched by his sentiments were Kiba and Akeno. They both felt that they only truly had a place to belong after joining Rias' Peerage and were happier than when they weren't Devils, so they could understand where he was coming from.

Xenovia then stepped forward, looking a bit nervous but smiled as well. "….….I regretted it a bit but the things that I couldn't do when I was serving the church, the things that were sealed from me are now brilliantly coloring my everyday life. If I say these words, I may anger the other believers but.….… Even then I am satisfied by my current life."

Asia also says it with her hands together.

"Michael-sama, I also feel I am happy. Since I now have a lot of important people. And also I have met and talked with the Michael-sama who I admired, it's an honor!"

Mika stood beside her Brother again and faced Michael.

"I'm happy too. Regardless of whether I'm a Devil or anything else, as long as I'm with my Brother and I can live the way I want, I can't complain."

Upon hearing all their words, Michael showed an expression of relief. "I am truly grateful to all of you for having such forgiving hearts. I leave Durandal to you, Xenovia. Since it's the family of the Sirzechs' Sister then I am at ease that it won't be used by those who do as they please."

"Good grief, you're too forgiving you know that?" Azazel commented, lazily leaning his head to the side while looking slightly amused. "They way you keep shift from one personality-trait to the next makes it hard to tell if you a Devil or an Angel."

Shirou shrugged and nonchalantly responded. "The two are essentially the same when you get right down to it. The only real difference is who they follow."

"Heh. First time I've heard someone say that." Azazel said with a chuckle.

"Anyway, now that we've finished discussing all the important stuff, let's get back to what we were talking about before. The danger I was sensing a little while ago." Shirou brought up, reminding them. "We never actually got around to addressing it."

"Even if you say that, what do you expect us to do?" Azazel asked. "It's not like we can confirm or location any hostile presence."

"Even so you—!"

DOOOOOOOONN!

Shirou was interrupted when a sudden repulsing force fluctuated throughout the entire room. It was like feeling the shockwave born from an implosion before the detonation of a great explosion. Everyone was able to feel it if only for a second, yet it was enough to grab the attention of everyone currently in the room.

"….Uh, did anyone else just feel tha—"

FLAAAAAAASSSSSHHH!

* * *

A few seconds after the Magicians entered the Old School building and before the sudden repulsing force fluctuated throughout the meeting room, the entire campus of Kuoh Academy was covered in a barrier space that was made the whole scenery red. Everything from the Old School building to the New School building was covered by this aura.

In the forest that was a few meters away from the Old School building, yet close enough to see the outside of the building, a lone figure hidden in the shadow of a tree was looking out at the building and could see a small band of Magicians outside, as well as sense another group of Magicians inside.

"Tch… Looks like their hunch was right, someone did attack. Good thing I came."

After saying that, the one hiding came out from behind the tree and started making his way to the Old School building.

"Guess I'll have to take care of this."

FLAME!

He held his hand and created a fireball while he grinned.

* * *

"… _Gasp_!"

Shirou suddenly opened his eyes and gasped for air as he looked around. That's when he noticed it, the interior of the staff meeting room had changed just a little. Everything was now covered by a strange purple aura, similar to how things are whenever a barrier that covers a large area is put up. Michael was looking outside from a window, and Sirzechs and Azazel were deep in talk looking serious for some reason.

"Oh, the Sekiryuutei has come back."

Azazel saw me and said this.

"What the Hell just happened?" Shirou questioned.

"They're frozen." Kiba said, stating the obvious.

Looking around, people were divided between those that could move and those that were stopped. All the big-shots were moving. Sirzechs, Serafall, Grayfia, Michael, and Azazel, as well as Vali, seemed to be able to move.

The club members were—

"It seems only me, Shirou, Mika, Yuuto, and Xenovia are able to move from my family."

Rias noticed. Conversely, Asia, Akeno, Sona and Tsubaki were all stopped. Though Shirou noticed the Gem on his Boosted Gear was glowing, while Kiba and Xenovia both had their Swords in hand, both of which were also glowing.

"Is everyone frozen in time?" Shirou wondered.

"It appears so." Sirzechs said as he and the other leaders looked grim at the situation. "Fortunately, those of us with superior powers weren't affected."

Vali continued to lean against the wall with a look of confidence. Not appearing to be bothered by what was going on. "You can thank our Dragons. They protected us." He said to Shirou before looking at the two Gremory Knights. "The Heavenly Bunch over there were shielded by their Holy-Swords."

"What? I don't understand." Irina said, unable to comprehend all that was happening.

Shirou looked at the two girls standing next to him and found something strange. "But why can Mika and Rias move?"

Rias placed her hand on his gauntlet. "It must be because we were holding on to you before time froze." She said softly to him. "If it wasn't for you, I would have been frozen as well. You saved me again."

Shirou nodded, looking serious before turning to Mika. "Rias was holding my hand so I get her, but why were you holding on to me?"

"Whenever anything happens that I don't know about but seems dangerous, my default response is to cling to you for safety." She answered, with little expression.

"Well, we're lucky that it helped in this situation." Shirou muttered before looking around. "But why and how did time get frozen in the first place?"

KABOOOOOOOOM!

Suddenly there was a loud explosion from outside. Everyone who could move ran to the window to see what was going on.

"We're under fire. In any Era where a power tried to form peace with other powers, there will also be a gathering of those who dislike it and try to disturb it."

Azazel pointed outside. When they all look in the direction he pointed, there were human-like silhouettes that had arrived in the Schoolyard and in the air. Exiting from a giant orange magic circle were mage-like people dressed in black robes with three eyes on their hoods, all who seemed to be firing attacks at the School that were similar to magic bullets.

Luckily, these attacks didn't look to be doing any damage to the New School Building. But, there also wasn't any sign of the attack relenting.

"Who are those people?" Mika asked worriedly.

Azazel, who was standing in front of them, gave a fearless smile as he answered.

"Those guys are so-called Magicians. It's a kind of magic that was originally interpreted from the magic system of Devils by the legendary Magician "Merlin Ambrosius" and reconstructed as Sorcery… From the power of the magic they're emitting, I'd guess that they each possess the magic power of a Mid-Class Devil."

"So they're still weaker than any moving person in this room." Shirou summarized.

"But right now that doesn't matter." Azazel argued. "Now that time is frozen, they're taking out our forces by the second."

And like he said as the magic bullet flew outside they were hitting the armies of all three sides. Each time a frozen soldier was hit by a magic bullet, they disappeared into a cloud of sparkles.

"In short, it means that Humans can use powers like those of Devils. Though, of course, it also seems to be possible that they can't become Devils themselves. It's especially troublesome when a Sacred Gear possessor learns magic. Well, their attacks aren't capable of damaging this School building. Because the Strongest protective barrier by me, Sirzechs, and Michael is enveloping this place. Though, thanks to that, we can't leave here."

"But, what is this power?" Michael asked.

"Most likely, they used a Sacred Gear or magic that transfers power on the Half-Vampire kid's Sacred Gear and forcefully made it go into Balance Breaker state. It's only a temporary Balance Breaker state, even then, to think that it even affects people present in the interior of objects outside the field of vision… So that Half-Vampire's potential ability was this high. Well, it seems that he lacks the output to stop us, top-position guys, though."

"This is Gasper's Balance Breaker?" Shirou exclaimed, completely shocked.

 _(Balance Breaker? He can already stop time, what would a Balance Breaker be like?)_

After thinking back on those words he said. Shirou is now able to comprehend just how powerful Gasper's Sacred Gear and potential is. But also he realized the only way this situation could be happening at all meant the Magicians must have already captured Gasper while the Summit was taking place.

 _"So that's the danger I was feeling."_ Shirou realized, clenching his fist.

"You said they transferred power?" Rias took notice of his words. "Are you saying there are Sacred Gears other than Shirou's that can strengthen others to this extent?"

"Boosted Gear combines together both the nearly endless Doubling ability and the Transfer-ability. There exist independent Sacred Gears with either of these respective powers. The Doubling Sacred Gear and Transfer Sacred Gear. All the Longinus are just a combination of one ability with another. Essentially, they combine powerful abilities that aren't supposed to be combined. "Maybe the [Longinus] are born because of a kind of bug, errors in the [Sacred Gear program] constructed by God", that's one of the opinions of us 'Grigori'. If I had to say it in an easy-to-understand way to you, it's a fact that there are other powers that can transfer."

Rias nodded, accepting his explanation as she turned to look out the window while glaring. "Gasper has been made into a terrorist weapon at the Old School Building…" Red aura gushed out from her body. "Just where did they get information on my servant… Moreover, for them to use his power to go after this important meeting…! Never have I been so insulted like this!"

"This School is enveloped in a barrier. But, despite this, they appeared within the barrier. There must be a transfer-use magic circle or a person connecting with a gate to the inside of the premises. By stopping us here with their fierce attack, they intend to annihilate each School building the instant our time is stopped. They seem to be using considerable military power."

Preceding Azazel's gaze, magic circles appeared at various places in the school grounds and started shining ominously. From the magic-circles appeared forms that were the same as the Magician group that already appeared. Or rather, they were Magicians just like before. There were a lot of them still appearing.

"They just keep appearing." Mika exclaimed seeing more Magicians appear. "One after another, there's no end to them."

"It's a repeat from just now." Azazel added. "They'll keep appearing even if we knock and knock them down."

Grayfia then spoke out. "And unfortunately, our magical transport troops are completely sealed off from us."

"So we've been concerned." Sirzechs realized.

"Yes. And their timing along with their use of Lady Gremory's Bishop could not have been more perfect." Michael pointed out.

"We've been betrayed?" Irina said in disbelief. She then noticed Xenovia staring at her. Remember how she accused her of being a traitor, she looked away in guilt.

"A traitor?" Shirou whispered.

After thinking about it for a second, a thought came to him. Shirou then looked over to Mika, after she saw the look he was making, she had the same expression and nodded. Showing she knew what he was thinking and that they were on the same page.

"Can't we go and save Gasper?" Rias suggested, wanting to do so.

"We can't escape. As long as the barrier enclosing the entire School isn't dissolved, we can't go outside. But, if the barrier is dissolved, damage may be taken in the Human world. We have to wait for the enemy boss to appear. If we shut ourselves in here for a while, they'll get tired of waiting and show their face. I'd like to know who the mastermind is quickly. Besides, if we go out and rampage imprudently, we may just do exactly what the enemy wishes."

Azazel explained to her in a composed manner. Sirzechs then joined the conversation.

"That said, we leaders can't move while making preparations. However, our first goal is to take back Gasper from the old school building which has become the terrorists' base."

"Onii-sama, I'll go. Gasper is my servant. It's my responsibility to take him back."

Rias sent out a strong will in her eyes as she proposed this. But Sirzechs shook his head.

"I thought I said it before. I understand my younger Sister's personality. However, how will you go to the Old School building? It's filled with Magicians outside this New School building. The usual transfer is also blocked by magic."

Rias bit her bottom lip in frustration, she wanted to argue but she couldn't think of anything she could do in this situation. That's when Shirou stepped forward and gave them a solution.

"Relax. I have an idea on how to get Gasper back."

"You do?" Rias asked surprised. "What's the plan?"

Shirou smirked before he answered. "It's already in motion."

* * *

Walking through the hallway of the first floor of the Old School building, one person made his way to a large door that led to the room that Gasper was formerly sealed in and was currently the room where Koneko and Gasper were inside of after being captured by the Magicians.

BANG!

Just by smashing his open-palm into the door, he broke it down and walk into the room. This got the attention of all the Magicians in the room. They were the same group that appeared before Koneko and Gasper in the club room.

"Impossible! An intruder?!"

"But how did he get in?!"

The room itself looked the way it did before, except at the end of the room by the wall and behind all the Magicians were the two First-Years; Gasper and Koneko. Both of them were locked on to two orange magic circles that were as big as their bodies and had the same mark as the ones the Magicians were using. Though for some reason, Koneko was upside-down which made her skirt fall, while Gasper was right-side-up but looked in pain. And judging from his eyes, it appeared that his Sacred Gear was being forcibly activated.

They noticed him as well and Koneko called out to him.

"…Ren-Senpai?"

"That's right." Ren said with confidence.

It was true, the person standing before them was nonother than the Half-Youkai Wolf; Ren Todo. Right now, Ren was standing at the doorway to the room while both his Wolf ears and tail were out, plus his eyes were already slit and his body was covered in an aura of Touki. Upon seeing him, Gasper cried out.

"But how, how did you get here?"

"I was always near the building." Ren began to explain. "Shirou and Mika didn't tell you guys, but they had a hunch thing would go south during the Summit. Even if war didn't break out it was possible a different group might try something and if that did happen, we needed to be prepared to defend ourselves and strike back. So he called me and asked me to stay on standby. If I saw someone enter the building, I was to take care of them and back up you two." He then looked at the Magicians. "And by the looks of things, I got here just in time."

Koneko looked surprised but then smiled. "…They had a plan in case something happened, as expected of those two."

"That still doesn't make sense!" One of the Magicians argued angrily. "We had an entire group guarding the outside of this building, how did you get inside?!"

"I burned all their flesh to cinders, wasn't that was obvious?" Ren answered jokingly.

"Grr… You damn beast!" The Magician cursed at him.

"Now then ladies here's a question." Ren, still smiling held up both his hands, appearing on each hand was a fireball. However, inside the fireballs were two orbs of Senjutsu. "What happens when you mix fire and Senjutsu? The answer; a flame that reduces everything to ash."

FLAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMEEEEEEE!

* * *

"You had Ren on stand by?" Rias repeated surprised.

Back in the meeting room, Shirou had just finished explaining to everyone what he had planned. He began with how he and Mika had anticipated the possibility of an attack happening and how they asked Ren to watch the Old School building while being ready to move at any moment.

"Wow, to think you two actually expected something like this." Azazel said brazenly. "I can't tell if you're smart or pessimistic."

"Yeah well be grateful that were, considering that's what's going to save Gasper." Shirou reminded him. "It's also a good thing we can in our combat gear, now we're prepared for a fight."

"Still though, I never imagined someone would use Gasper or use his power like this." Mika put a hand on her chin and started to think about it. "I can only assume their plan was to draw out even more power until the time of everyone in this room was frozen, including the leaders." She theorized. "After that, the boss villain would reveal themselves and make the kill."

"Then that makes it all the more important we get Gasper back."

Sirzechs said with urgency, Kiba then followed up.

"But right we can't do anything but count on Ren-kun."

"What are the chances that Ren Todo will be able to succeed in retrieving Gasper?" Grayfia asked.

"High enough for me not to worry." Shirou said, confident in his friend's abilities. "Ren trains with me almost every day, so I know better than anyone how strong he is."

"There's a reason we asked him to do this, it's because we know he can handle it." Mika added, with the same confidence. "You can't stop him with just Mid-Class strength even if they're a group."

"In that case, once he arrives we'll use this."

The Governor of the Fallen Angels reached into his pocket and took something out. It seemed to be wide a ring to put around the hand. Multiple layers of strange characters were carved into it. Azazel spoke to them.

"This is a bracelet with the power to control a Sacred Gear to some degree. After your friend gets here with the aforementioned Half-Vampire, put it on him. It'll help him control his power somewhat."

"Azazel, just how far did you research Sacred Gears?"

Michael asked Azazel while sighing, but the Fallen Angel Governor just smiled fearlessly.

"It's fine, isn't it? God, the one who made the Sacred Gears, isn't here, right? Isn't it better if there's someone who can explain about Sacred Gears at least a little? I heard there are all kinds of things that even you don't know, right?"

"I think the problem is that you're the one who's researching it…"

"If you don't mind, I could go out there and take out the Magicians outside." Vali suggested, still looking relaxed. "Better yet I could just take out the Half-Vampire along with the terrorists."

"Don't even think about it." Shirou warned him, though his expression was blank, let he knew neither of them was being serious about this. "Not only is that not necessary right now but you'll get Ren and Koneko caught up in it."

Vali looked amused. "So you suggest we do nothing?"

Then Azazel stepped forward.

"Quit that, at a time where we've united in peace. In the worst-case scenario, we'll do that, but if we can save a member of the Devil King's family, saving him will be of benefit for us in the future."

"Understood."

Vali agreed to Azazel's suggestion while letting out an unsatisfied breath.

"Azazel, continuing the talk from before." Sirzechs queried Azazel.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"What are you trying to do by collecting Sacred Gears? You've been collecting Longinus owners too, right? Do you intend to kill God even though God no longer exists?"

Azazel shook his head at that question.

"It's to prepare."

"Prepare? That's some uneasiness-inciting talk, even though you reject war." Michael said this in amazement.

"I said so, right? I won't go to war against you people. I also won't make war here. However, a means of self-defense is necessary. Rather, should I say we're not just preparing for an attack from you?"

"Then?"

"The Khaos Brigade."

"…Khaos, Brigade?"

It was a name none of the Gremory Peerage had heard before, but it seemed Sirzechs didn't know either from his furrowed eyebrows. Azazel elaborated.

"I only confirmed the organization's name and background recently, but my Vice Governor Shemhaza has also had his eye on this suspiciously acting group from before that. It's said that they're gathering dangerous members from all Three Great Powers. Some Sacred Gear-possessing Humans who have attained Balance Breaker also seem to be included. I've also confirmed a number of Longinus possessors among them."

"Their goal is?" Michael asked that.

"Destruction and mayhem. It's that simple, you know? They don't like this world's peace. They're terrorists. Moreover, they're ill-natured to the extreme."

Then, could it be that this terrorist attack is…?

Azazel put on a grim expression. "The organization's leader is the powerful fiendish Dragon that shores beyond the Welsh Dragon and Vanishing Dragon."

[—!]

All of the leaders along with Rias and Grayfia became speechless at Azazel's confession.

"…I see so that person has moved. The Uroboros Dragon Ophis. The Dragon feared by God…The one who kept reigning over with the position of the Strongest since the world began." Sirzechs now also had a grim expression.

"…Ophis?" Shirou repeated, not being familiar with the name. Then he remembered something important. _"Wait? The Strongest since the word began?!"_

 _("But you should be aware that there are a lot of strong people in this world. Even the Crimson Satan, Sirzechs Lucifer won't fit in the top ten." Vali informed him, before holding up one finger. "However, the first place is decided. —It's a fixed existence.")_

 _"So that's who Vali meant, the first place fixed existence is Ophis."_ Shirou realized in his head.

As Shirou was having these by thoughts, a voice that no one in the room was used to hearing leaped into his ear.

{Yes, Ophis is the leader of the "Khaos Brigade".}

BA-DUMP!

The moment that voice was heard, both the Tsukiharu siblings felt their hearts beat faster. It felt like two-tons of weight weighed down on their chests and they couldn't stop their emotions from surging. All this was happening because of one, single reason. They recognized that voice.

[ _…T-This voice?_ ]

They both thought simultaneously.

A magic circle emerged on the floor from an empty part of the meeting room at the same time as the voice. It was a magic circle that they've never seen before, but it was filled with Demonic power. As they saw it, all the leaders of the three great powers were shocked. No, Azazel laughed, and Sirzechs made a sour expression.

"I see. So you've come! The mastermind this time." Sirzechs clicked his tongue. "The magic circle of Leviathan."

Even though he said that; this wasn't the pattern of Serafall Leviathan's magic circle. But Irina answered why that was the case with a troubled expression.

"It's something seen in the books of the Vatican. That's the magic circle of the original Maou Leviathan."

A single woman appeared from the magic circle. She was a tall bespectacled woman with a voluptuous figure. She had tan skin with long brown hair tied into a bun with a headset and she had purple eyes. She wore an extremely low-cut dress and it had a high slit which exposed a large portion of her breasts.

 **Play OST - My Hero Academia - All For One Vs One For All!**

"How do you do, current Devil King Sirzechs-dono?"

The woman greeted Sirzechs-sama with a fearless tone.

"The one descended from the blood of the previous Leviathan. Cattleya Leviathan. What is the meaning of this?"

Sirzechs questioned her. While Shirou and Mika reminded silent and completely still, it was like they were in shock. So much so that they were hardly paying attention to the conversation that was currently taking place. "…Cattleya….…Leviathan."

Though to quiet for anyone to hear, Mika muttered her name while having a tone that sounded like she was in a trance.

The woman—Cattleya Leviathan, who was descended from the original Leviathan, gave a defiant smile and spoke.

"The members of the Old Maou Faction have nearly all decided to cooperate with the Khaos Brigade."

"So it's a feud between the new and old Maou sides that have become full-scale. Devils are also difficult." Azazel just smiled like it was someone else's problem.

"Cattleya, is it okay to interpret those words literally?"

"Sirzechs, it's exactly as I said. We are also taking charge of this attack right now."

"So it's a coup d'état, huh?"

"…Cattleya, why?"

"Sirzechs, we've only arrived at the exact opposite idea of this meeting today. We've concluded that, since God and the original Maou are gone, this world should be reformed."

"Has that Ophis seen that far ahead into the future? Though that doesn't seem likely."

Cattleya just let out a breath in response to Azazel's question.

"Aside from being a symbol of power, he just bears the position for the sake of gathering power. We've asked for his help to destroy the world and rebuild it again. We will be the ones to manage the new world."

Sirzechs smiled very sarcastically.

"…So you're a gathering of Angel, Fallen Angel, and Devil rebels who want their own world and a new Earth that they rule over. The mediator of that is the Uroboros Ophis."

"Cattleya-chan! Why are you doing such a thing!?" Serafall shouted out.

Upon hearing her voice, Cattleya's demeanor changed into a hateful expression fill with scorn and loathing at Serafall.

"Serafall, how dare you, to act so shamelessly, as the one who stole the position of Leviathan from me! I'm descended from the original Leviathan! I was the one suited to be Maou!"

"Cattleya-chan…I-I!" Serafall looked troubled after hearing her hate-filled words.

"Don't worry, Serafall. Today, I'll kill you at this place and take the title of Maou Leviathan for myself. Then, Ophis will become the God of the new world. It's fine if he's just a symbol. The System and laws, the doctrine will be constructed by us. Michael, Azazel, and Lucifer—Sirzechs, your Era is over."

The expressions of Sirzechs, Serafall, and Michael all darkened at Cattleya's words.

RUUUUUMMMMMBBBBLLLLLLEEEEE!

All of a sudden everyone was silenced by the appearance of a new aura that filled the room. It felt as if gravity was suddenly increased, Rias, Kiba, Xenovia, and Irina felt their knees under the weight of this force. It was simply magic power or Demonic power, those were only part of it, the main force that made this aura so disgustingly high was one major source.

Killing Intent.

A tsunami-like wave of Killing Intent blanketed the entire room and it was all aimed at one person; Cattleya Leviathan.

The others turned to see that the source of this oppressive aura was behind them. It was Shirou and Mika, both of whom were staring at Cattleya with a look in their eyes that said they wanted to kill her. No, kill wasn't strong enough, they wanted nothing more than to murder her in the most painful way they could think off. If looks could kill, Cattleya would have been dead a million times over.

"Shirou? Mika?" Rias breathed out, surprised by what she was feeling from them.

 _"I'm an idiot."_ Azazel inwardly cursed himself. _"What other reaction could I have expected them to have after seeing her, one of the ones responsible for destroying their lives."_

After a few seconds, the Brother and Sister duo began walking forward, slowly approaching the objected of their hatred.

Azazel attempted to reach out and stop them. "Wait! Don't—"

"SILENCE!"

Shirou roared, not even looking at him and silencing everyone, demonstrating that the two of them won't allow anyone to block their way or prevent them from doing the deed. As they walked, Mika addressed her Brother.

"Brother, let me do it." Mika requested in a serious manner.

"Of course, Sister." Shirou accepted with the tone. "Do your thing."

With that Shirou halted his advance, while Mika continued until she was right in front of Cattleya. At that point she addressed her.

"Tell me Cattleya Leviathan, do you know who I am?" She questioned with a dark tone.

Cattleya no longer had her previous expression filled with arrogance and superiority. Instead, she now looked surprised and slightly unnerved. Though as Mika spoke to her, she narrowed her eyes.

"I have no reason to know the name of a vulgar, reincarnated-Devil." She said with contempt. "If you get in my way I'll kill—"

FLASH!

Before she could finish speaking, with a wave of her hand, Mika created a transparent orb of magic that was several meters wide and encompassed Cattleya, thus sealing her inside.

 _ **EXPLOSION ORB!**_

"What?!" Cattleya was dumbstruck by the fact that she was suddenly trapped.

"You let your guard down." Mika mercilessly informed her. "Don't bother trying to escape, the orb is impenetrable from the inside.

Rias looked surprised at what just happened. _"So fast, I didn't even see her activate that spell."_

Vali smirked at her. _"Impressive."_

"Damn you…" Cattleya cursed at her.

"I'll tell you my name, make sure you remember it for the rest of your short life." Mika's tone was silent, but her wrath was building up and her body was trembling with hatred. "I'm am the daughter of two people you murdered seven years ago, one of the children you captured and tortured. And someone who will bring death to the Old Satan Faction."

Once Cattleya took a good look at her face and heard her words, realization hit her immediately. "Wait, you're—"

"That's right, I am an emissary of revenge!" Mika declared loudly before holding up her hand to detonate her spell. "I AM MIKA TSUKIHARU!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!

"AND I AM THE ONE WHO WILL KILL YOU!"

 **Music Off!**

* * *

 **And that's the chapter. First off, I didn't want the chapter to end here. Originally it would have covered the entire fight between Mika and Cattleya and the next chapter would have been the last one for this Arc, but circumstances made me change that idea and so now there are two more chapters left in this Arc.**

 **During the meeting, I changed things so instead of asking Michael why Asia was exiled from the Church, Shirou asked Michael and Azazel to tell him all the details about his parents, I wanted to clear things up so you all would have the answers to any remaining questions you had about them. And to give Shirou and Mika some peace of mind.**

 **And now, Shirou's goal. I told you before that Shirou's goal was going to be a huge one and it was, Shirou wants to become Lucifer. That was always something I had planned and have big plans for this route. Right now Shirou wants to be Lucifer just because he believes that'll make him the Strongest Devil, like Sirzechs, but as the story progresses and he matures he'll start to truly become someone who wants to be a King and leader of the Underworld, but that'll come later.**

 **And finally the fight, I know some of you will be upset by the fact that Azazel won't be fighting Cattleya because it's his debut fight and he reveals his artificial Sacred Gear in said fight, but just think about it. Killing the leaders of the Old Satan Faction is a life-long dream of Shirou's and Mika and now one of them is right in front of them, does it really sound believable that they would just let someone else take the fight while they both stand on the side-lines and watch, I wouldn't think so.**

 **The next chapter will cover this entire fight and wrap up everything else, thus leading up to this Arc's main event fight. And I'll do whatever I can to make this fight thrilling and exciting. I'll post it when I post.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, if you want more leave a review, if you like the story then click the follow/favorite, and as always have an awesome day.**


End file.
